Ah, the horrors of public speaking.
I think most people have experienced the painful anxiety before a presentation in front of the class. I certainly have. No matter how prepared I think I am, no matter how many times I talk myself through what’s going to happen, I’m always nervous. Sometimes, just slightly. Others, on the verge of hyperventilating. Sigh. You’d think at some point, I would’ve gotten used to it by now.
It’s always been a goal of mine to be able to articulate my ideas clearly, and while I’m no wordsmith (dream job, right there), I hope I’m able to get my point across rather decently most of the time. Thinking to myself? No problem. Writing? Sure. Discussing with my friends? So unbelievably natural. Alright, how about presenting? No. Thank. You.
So, this week in English, we’re doing a BRAWL, which is basically a competitive Socratic Seminar to analyze and answer predetermined questions about the novel we’re reading. And there is nothing that makes me feel worse than having a well-defined answer written down and then stammering your way through the first sentence until you’ve given up all hope. Did I mention this was a team competition? Sorry guys, I tried. The thing is, I don’t really like to read directly from the paper, and neither does the rest of my team. We use it as a reference and as a foundation for our answer, but we can choose to add whatever insight we see fit. The only thing is, the other members are a lot better at doing that than I am.
And now I’ve run out of things to say even though I was sure I had more planned out in my head. Well, it’s certainly not the first time this has happened.
And… now I’m done.
To be continued at an earlier hour on a later day,
Celine
toomuch&thensome 
Another reference to ‘Mean Girls’, no?
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Wow, I didn’t even know this existed until you mentioned it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AwcmIzgV_M
I think I heard the phrase somewhere before, but I don’t exactly remember?
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Along with “word vomit,” there’s also “verbal diarrhea.” It’s great thats there are appropriate metaphors to describe what nervousness students go through on a weekly basis in Theriault’s class.
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Wow, I’ve never heard “verbal diarrhea”, but that sounds even worse. Don’t worry Jean, I’m with you. We can be nervous together 🙂
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I don’t know if this sounds obscure but have you ever thought of ‘word vomit’ as something positive? For example, my interpretation of ‘word vomit’ when it comes to writing per se, would be spewing out every idea that came up, any word that sounded appropriate for the topic, etc. What do you think?
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Ooh yeah, that’s true. Word vomit can be positive as well, since there’s a lot of times where I just feel like my brain is spilling out all these ideas, and that leads to a lot of different topics that I didn’t think about before. 😀
Thanks for the insight!
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