Sinosauropteryx.
When I was in the sixth grade, despite a constant dread around presentations, I had to give a slideshow presentation on this dinosaur. I was terrified to present because my peers laughed at my speech impediment. Joselyn, the cult leader, made me feel so alone while I was at school. To avoid humiliation, I asked my teacher if I could present just to her. She looked at me coldly and said I needed to grow up and “get over it.”
But I could not just “get over” this feeling of failure. I had attended speech classes from kindergarten to fifth grade, but the classes did not help much. I still struggled to read out loud and pronounce basic words. One after another, my classmates presented on their dinosaurs. I could not focus on anything but the uncontrollable shaking of my legs and the pronunciation of “sinosauropteryx.” I willed my body to look normal as I walked up to the front of the class, but that only caused my insides to turn. I felt my face turn a bright, tomato red. …show more content…
“S-sino.” I could hear my classmates start to snicker. “Sino... sino...saur… saur...opter… ics.” On command, when “ics” left my lips, the class burst into peals of laughter. With their laughter ringing in my ears, I stumbled through the rest of the presentation and left the classroom to throw up in the bathroom.
Many presentations later, during tenth grade year, I participated in The Possible Project, an organization that teaches high school students how to start and run a business. At the end of every semester, students were required to give a presentation to convince a panel of investors that they deserved money to start their business. I was still terrified of giving presentations, but this presentation didn’t effect me; this time, my partner needed
When I was in the sixth grade, despite a constant dread around presentations, I had to give a slideshow presentation on this dinosaur. I was terrified to present because my peers laughed at my speech impediment. Joselyn, the cult leader, made me feel so alone while I was at school. To avoid humiliation, I asked my teacher if I could present just to her. She looked at me coldly and said I needed to grow up and “get over it.”
But I could not just “get over” this feeling of failure. I had attended speech classes from kindergarten to fifth grade, but the classes did not help much. I still struggled to read out loud and pronounce basic words. One after another, my classmates presented on their dinosaurs. I could not focus on anything but the uncontrollable shaking of my legs and the pronunciation of “sinosauropteryx.” I willed my body to look normal as I walked up to the front of the class, but that only caused my insides to turn. I felt my face turn a bright, tomato red. …show more content…
“S-sino.” I could hear my classmates start to snicker. “Sino... sino...saur… saur...opter… ics.” On command, when “ics” left my lips, the class burst into peals of laughter. With their laughter ringing in my ears, I stumbled through the rest of the presentation and left the classroom to throw up in the bathroom.
Many presentations later, during tenth grade year, I participated in The Possible Project, an organization that teaches high school students how to start and run a business. At the end of every semester, students were required to give a presentation to convince a panel of investors that they deserved money to start their business. I was still terrified of giving presentations, but this presentation didn’t effect me; this time, my partner needed