Umm, like.. A Nervous Wreck

Public speaking is something I am very familiar with. I grew up listening to the best public speaker ever: my mom. Being that my mom was a teacher and now a principal, she always stressed the importance of speaking well publicly. I began my public speaking in church. Because I was the president of the youth department, I was always required to do some sort of speaking at events and usually I was aware I would be speaking on the day of. However, my skills were not always that great. I became used to improvising so much, I never really took the time to prepare my speeches until      I got to high school and everything changed.

In high school, I always thought to myself that I don't need to do any preparations because I could do it off the top of my head, and while that was true, it was not always delivered well. My teachers have always told me that I speak well but they could tell I did not prepare and develop as much as I could have. Also, they have told me that I seem very comfortable in front of people, but nervousness overwhelms that feeling. Being nervous is something I have yet to overcome, especially in public speaking.  It became so bad, that I let it affect my confidence and as a result, earn unpleasant speaking grade. Most times when I know I have to speak in pubic, I do not feel nervous until the day of, which is normal but it becomes detrimental to myself and my audience. I experienced this a lot last year in high school. My AP Language class was based off rhetoric as well and my teacher assigned us three end of the year speeches. It was during those speeches that I realized, if improvising was not working now, it would not work in college. By my third speech, I had taken the time to practice and prepare myself, which resulted in a grade I was happy with.

One thing I still need to work on are on my non-verbals and the use of verbal fillers. I tend to resort to saying the words "umm" and "like" when I am thinking of what to say next. My mom always told me that saying "like" decreases your credibility, because it shows you are not sure of what you are saying. If something is this, then say what it is and not what it is like. Saying the word "umm" is also a habit of mine. I have to remember that it is okay to take a pause when speaking and think before I speak, instead of saying "umm".

Although public speaking is not a terrifying fear for me, it is still something I will have to master, especially with my intended career. With the upcoming TED Talk, I hope to improve my speaking skills and not hesitate to say what I mean.