Nervous Banquet

When I think of the phrase “public speaking”, I immediately picture a person, standing behind a podium, in front of a large group of people. My most recent example of “public speaking” occurred about a month ago at my gymnastics end-of-the-year banquet. During dinner, the president of our parent’s association approached me to inform me that I was to present a gift to the coaches and to give a small speech along with it. I only had about fifteen or twenty minutes to try to figure out what I was going to say. As the other girls got up to make their speeches, I was told that they had found out about the speech a week in advance. Needless to say, I managed to talk about how much the coaches have done for me in the past years and the audience, which was a large group of gymnasts and their parents, did not really mind all of my nervousness. This situation was a pretty good example of “public speaking”. I was dressed up and stood behind a podium and spoke to many people. I was probably not the most effective speaker. I talked really quickly and stumbled over my words. I’m pretty sure that my face was red and that no one could actually comprehend what I was saying, but luckily it was only very short and no one really minded.