Hey! That actually wasn't half bad

I had experienced numerous journal clubs and presented my own work in lab meetings in my urops before and so I thought I would feel more prepared for the 109 journal club. Between an unrelenting onslaught of assignments and the beginning of all morning practices for crew, I didn't get to prepare much of my presentation until somewhat last minute. I created slides to cover every experiment, result, and conclusion in the paper - certain that it would be over the 10 minute target, but uncomfortable with having to cut material. What was the most important? It didn't help that the article was not originally in English and the translation was not perfect. There were some sentences that seemed to directly contradict each other and one plot in particular that indicated significance where the text claimed there was none! After re-reading the article a number of times I ultimately narrowed down to the core claims and so was able to whittle down the presentation to just the essentials, but it still was uncomfortable knowing that I would only be able to describe such a small portion of what was actually done. "10 minutes" can be an eternity (e.g. when erging) but in journal club it is so short! In short, it was a long night. In a rather sleep deprived state, I struggled to keep my eyes open in class before the presentations (no offense to our prof.s!).
I don't drink coffee, but luckily a bit of adrenaline ensured I'd stay awake for my own presentation! I thought my experiences being a tour guide and presenting in other contexts had given me control over my nerves when public speaking at this point - I quickly realized that this did not apply to 109 journal club so much after all. This presentation was worth a good chunk of my grade and with these raised stakes my nerves came back into play. I began and was shocked to find myself out of breath. Was I just running? Who stole the air? What's going on - this wasn't supposed to happen. But the show must go on. I kept on and things got smoother and smoother as I went - by the Q & A session I was feeling like a conqueror.
And then I had to review the video. I was concerned that I would sound out of breath (like I felt) in the beginning but it turned out that it didn't show! I have also noticed in previous presentations that I sometimes compensate for nerves by unintentionally putting on an awfully smug face (kinda like smiling so that you feel happier, but not realizing that other people see your face too). So I was bracing for that obnoxiously smug face in the video review but it actually wasn't bad (I was backlit :P)! So overall the presentation and review were tough at the start but ultimately a lot better expected and certainly good practice.