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I trembled before the class, my hands so sweaty I could see my notesgetting dark from their dampness. I tried to remember what my speech coachtaught me: make eye contact with people in the room; breathe deeply; don'tfidget; don't read straight from my notes. I enrolled in this electivespeech class so that I could overcome my fear of public speaking. I admiredall my friends who were into drama or other performance art in which theycould get up in front of a crowd and sing or dance. Because I wasinterested in journalism, I decided that speech class would teach me how to
" However, today as I stood before the podium, I felt alright. Yet somehow when I saw those facesstaring up at me, all attention focused on my presence and on my words, Ifroze. Second, the support of my classmates was absolutely essential tomy overcoming stage fright. Eventhough my hands were still sweating, I looked up at the thirty-somethingpeople in the room made eye contact with a few of my classmates, whoreturned my smile. My first few speeches were disasters: Iprepared for hours, doing more research than I needed to for the topic sothat I could ad lib if necessary. Once, I lost my train of thought so badly that I had to prematurelyend the speech with a meek "Thank you. I took hisinstructions to heart; applying those teachings greatly contributed to mysuccess. I rehearsed in front of a mirror as wellas in front of friends. Looking back on this moment of personal victory, I can recall the keythings that helped me to overcome my fear of public speaking. Having taken that small step, I was then able todeliver my speech with aplomb: in fact, when I finished, the classapplauded. I memorized whole portions of text so that Iwouldn't need to refer to note cards. This was the first time I been able to lift my eyes fromthe floor or my notes. First, myinstructor provided me with the information and knowledge that I needed todeliver an effective, informative, and engaging speech.
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Acceptance Essays
