Speech Anxiety

“Alright, who can explain global warming?” asked my seventh-grade science teacher. I visualized the entire process in my mind: greenhouse gases, light coming from the sun, heat trapped in the earth’s atmosphere, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels. I started raising my hand slowly. But suddenly, a familiar fear fell over me. Paralyzed, I sat disconnected from the entire class with trembling knees and a dry throat. Eventually, I put my hand down and had let some other student answer the question.

This wasn’t my first struggle with speech anxiety. Public speaking had always been a challenge for me ever since my parents immigrated to the United States from India when I was seven years old. Because of my thick Indian accent and a lack of fluency in English, I landed in English as Second Language (ESL) classes in elementary school. Although I later became fluent in English and lost my accent, my anxiety remained, inhibiting me from speaking in front of class or participating in class discussions. What if my voice start shaking? What if I say something wrong and end up looking like a fool? Questions like these were always lingering in the back of my mind.

During class presentations, I would let my friends do most of the talking and I would be the one scrolling through the PowerPoint. I …show more content…
Each time they did, I cringed as if I was standing in front of the class making that same mistake. I thought they would get ridiculed and criticized, but when I looked around, no one batted an eye. People were just watching and listening. Sitting there in class, I slowly started to realize that my anxiety was completely unfounded. I was fluent in English and had acquired an American accent. I had absolutely nothing to be afraid of, but I had let my fear grow into something so strong that it was warping my perception of reality. I couldn’t recognize that everyone made mistakes, and I wasn’t the only