Blog Post #5

    During my speech, I could obviously tell that I was nervous.  To start off, I stumbled over my words and said "um" four times within the first 30 seconds of my speech.  As a nervous tick, I repeatedly turned around to look at the slide behind me despite the fact that I had little to no words on the slides, only pictures.  Another thing that I noticed was that it took me a few seconds to register the so called “codes” that I had written on my note-cards which ended up throwing me off.  I also noticed that I rocked back and forth quite a bit. That must be a new nervous tick that I have when I am in front of people.  The final major thing that I noticed was that I would start a though out strong, but fail to finish it as powerfully as I started.  It was almost like I forgot that I had to finish my point before I went ahead and moved to the next one.

    At times, I could hear a random glimpse of hope that I was becoming a little more comfortable and was confident in what I was saying.  I also did not hear my voice shake like it used to. In high school when I gave speeches, or had to do anything in front of the class for that matter, my voice would shake uncontrollably when I spoke. Another thing that I noticed was that I did not keep a monotone voice. I was able to keep it a little more interesting even though a few times I did trail off and get very quiet

    Overall, I was pretty disappointed in the way I presented and gave my speech. For some reason, I have always struggled giving speeches to those who were my age, but never felt as intimidated when giving them to older people for scholarships or at banquets.  From this speech I learned how important extensive practice is.  The need to know your material without depending on your note-cards is very important. I feel like I will be able to attempt to fix some of these issues for the next speech.