Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Public Speaking

When I started college as a freshman, we had the opportunity to give a speech to get out of a required public speaking course. "Great!" I had thought. "I can take another art class!" I'd also heard that it was almost impossible to fail.

Oh, but fail I did. I still remember clutching the text of my speech; my eyes were glued to it the entire time. The content was great - something about how we should be paying more attention to the oppression of women/destruction of art by the Taliban (this was 1998, mind you) - but I doubt those listening and judging could pay attention to any of it, given how much I was shaking and (probably) mumbling.

Tonight is a public reading at my writing class. I'm going to share the beginning part of my novel-in-progress. I'm psyched. I'm sure I'll be nervous, but it won't compare to that Taliban speech. Besides, my mom and best friend will be in the audience; also, I'm told there will be wine.

3 comments:

Aki Mori said...

What a wonderful entry! Honest, humorous, and so optimistic--love it!

george rede said...

Hope it all went well, you ahead-of-your-time revolutionary. Is there a video or audio clip available so I pour a glass of wine and hear you?

August said...

I need to check for comments more often! The read-around went great - lots of positive feedback, and I didn't trip over my words. I even managed to look up a few times. There's no audio, but if I ever do record it, you'll be the first to know. Thanks for the encouragement!!!