Personal Narrative-Business Leadership Program

I can run out of that castle in the ESPN Center at Disney World. I can stand under the spot lights. I can perform in front of thousands of people. But I cannot speak in front of a class of 25 students and one teacher without my voice shaking and having to stop and compose myself. The summer of 2015 I learned to ease my fear, because there is no way I could conquer it in one week.
On Sunday, June 14th, I headed up to the University of Colorado at Boulder for the week long Business Leadership Program held by the Leeds School of Business. I told my mom to turn around several times because I was so nervous. We got there, I settled into my room and met my roommate. We went through orientation, found our groups, and learned our tasks. My nerves had …show more content…
We sauntered into the room knowing the disaster that was about to take place and shook the "judges" hands. I had to set up our powerpoint because it was on my computer and I left my note card on the table. Note card-less and flustered, I said everything I could remember about my presentation and in the process had to stop four times in order to catch my breath which created an awkward silence. I could feel the pity radiating off the judges. After disaster had struck, we sat down and prepared for the critique. These representatives were so kind because they knew we had not been prepared. I was told that I have a wonderful stage presence, and it takes a lot of courage to stop myself to recollect my thoughts and continue. As courageous as I was, I needed to memorize our information so I would just be able to talk about it like I was having a regular conversation. I held my composure even though the only thing I wanted to do was break down and cry. Once it was over, we shook the hands of our teachers, and I arrived at the head of the Office of Diversity Affairs, Kristi Ryujin. She looked at me and said, "I know how hard this can be. You just need to know that you can do it. I'm going to hug you now, and