One academic challenge I faced was my fear of public speaking. In some of my classes, I was required to give presentations. I was always nervous during these presentations and never delivered them effectively. My fear kept growing as I continually botched multiple presentations. The climax of this is when I had to deliver a speech for National Honors Society officer elections. Leading up to the speech, I was dreading the thought of actually doing it. My head was throbbing all day and I couldn't think straight. It was finally time to give the speech. I started off decent, but quickly lost my flow. When I realized things were going bad, I felt an immense amount of anxiety and felt like I had briefly lost consciousness. When I came to, I was standing
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I gradually felt myself getting more comfortable with being the focus of attention. I then made a decision that I wanted to become an effective public speaker. I enrolled in speaking classes at my school. Whenever I was assigned to give a speech, I would practice for hours until I had it perfected. This lead to me giving multiple successful presentations in a row. I began to gain confidence in my ability to speak in front of a large audience. My redeeming moment was during a formal assembly at my school, called "Outstanding Senior Boy". This was a competition where the 24 highest ranked seniors in the school were required to draw a random question from a basket and answer it in front of the whole school and numerous community members. A panel of judges then gives each answer a grade. I was uneasy about this. Although I gained the ability to properly put together and deliver a planned speech, I didn't know if I could effectively deliver an answer when put on the spot with no preparation. I could have backed out of this competition at any moment, but I decided to go through with it to prove to myself that I could do it. My time finally came around to answer a question. When I pulled my question, I took time to slowly breathe and gather my thoughts in my head. I then read the question and generated a response in my head. I focused solely on giving my answer, not on the hundreds of people staring at me or the fear of failing. Looking
I gradually felt myself getting more comfortable with being the focus of attention. I then made a decision that I wanted to become an effective public speaker. I enrolled in speaking classes at my school. Whenever I was assigned to give a speech, I would practice for hours until I had it perfected. This lead to me giving multiple successful presentations in a row. I began to gain confidence in my ability to speak in front of a large audience. My redeeming moment was during a formal assembly at my school, called "Outstanding Senior Boy". This was a competition where the 24 highest ranked seniors in the school were required to draw a random question from a basket and answer it in front of the whole school and numerous community members. A panel of judges then gives each answer a grade. I was uneasy about this. Although I gained the ability to properly put together and deliver a planned speech, I didn't know if I could effectively deliver an answer when put on the spot with no preparation. I could have backed out of this competition at any moment, but I decided to go through with it to prove to myself that I could do it. My time finally came around to answer a question. When I pulled my question, I took time to slowly breathe and gather my thoughts in my head. I then read the question and generated a response in my head. I focused solely on giving my answer, not on the hundreds of people staring at me or the fear of failing. Looking