Diary of an Energetic "Presenter": Entry #2

Note: Meme shortage due to lack of trauma and sleep deprivation for this assignment. Restock will be available on November 11th. 

Who would've thought that in a communications intensive class we'd have to present to the whole class? What a concept! 

Dear Diary:

It has been surveyed that "75% of the population struggles with a fear of public speaking to a certain degree." I don't know who the other 12.5 people in this class are that have a fear of public speaking cause they all went up there like champs.

Its 4 PM on a Friday in Leslie's room. I pull up with my article unread, and my PowerPoint non-existent. By the time I kick myself out, I had finished reading the introduction and made the title slide. I tried to continue working on it, but then Cena a las Seis happened, so obviously, I had to cop some free food and call it a night.

Luckily for me, past me had scheduled a Comm Lab appointment for Monday so I had a deadline to meet to have this presentation done and practiced (Spoiler Alert: This didn't happen, but it's fun to kid myself). The struggle with reading articles is that it's either convoluted and requires a plethora of background knowledge, or it's about as dry as the dining hall rice. Regardless, it had to be done. After that, it was difficult trying to come up with a story plot for this presentation: who's the protagonist, where's the inciting incident, what about the climax, and where's the happily ever after? In the end, I scrambled together some pictures and made a slide with some title sentences.

Fast forward to my comm lab meeting, and I walk in with an unfinished, unpracticed product, and hoped something would come about the meeting. Thank the heavens for comm lab cause they really be out here saving me during dire times. I didn't have a script so I just made up some presentation on the spot and hoped a storyline would come about. Besides citing my paper as National Communications, this presentation was fairly decent. I put it aside for it until my habitual sojourn to McCormick Hall, where most of my procrastinated assignments get finished.

The second victim of my presentation: my lab partner and everyone who was in the Brown Living Room that night. I was speaking at full volume so everyone got to learn about CRISPR and allosteric transcription factors. When there was a lull in my presentation, the awkward silence in the room made me realize how loud I was. After getting some comments and procrastinating a bit, I left for my living group with the intention of continuing to work on the presentation. Sike, I knocked out and woke up in time to be 5 minutes late to 20.320.

Noreen's right; during 109 lecture, my attention was anywhere but that classroom. I know I have the attention span of a goldfish, but my mind was in another dimension; all I know is that we ended 20 minutes early. With those 20 minutes, a group of us shifted to the stairwells and practiced our presentations. After that, I called it. I was as prepared as I could be for this assignment.

I honestly wanted to be first to present so I could get it over with. Sadly, spots #1 and #2 were taken. I knew I needed to hype myself up so I took spot #4, which had a 10-minute break before it. In my 10 minutes before my execution, I listened to the only person who could give me the energy to make it through this presentation: Lizzo.

Quoting Lizzo: "I'm 100% that" person.

Similar to what Kylie said about the nerves building up seconds before the presentation starts. On the outside, I tried to look calm, but on the inside, my thoughts were racing. 


I don't remember what happened during the presentation, so it's a good thing this presentation was recorded and I got to relive it with Noreen. The entire time I was watching myself I could only think back to FBE React videos. I was just cracking up at myself. My comments were A1 and I think I could land a job as a reactor on that YouTube channel. 

Somethings never changed. From watching myself, I learned:

  1. I need to cut down on the sugar. (A bit exaggerated) I was bouncing around so much, I was out of the frame of the video for a good amount of time.
  2. My hands were flailing around like that inflatable tube man until I hit my power pose; then, all the movement was with the flick of the wrist.
  3. What I thought was a second of recollecting my thoughts was actually a pretty long time.
    1. However, I didn't say 'Um' a lot, so let's get it.
  4. Even though I didn't have the right slides, I somehow managed not to stumble (as bad as it could have been)

Overall, I survived. And managed to thrive (I think). 

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