Discomfort = Growth

May 17, 2021

Discomfort = Growth

For audio version of this post click here.

Have you ever been completely captivated by a person talking on a stage or in front of a microphone?

Many of us, especially TED Talk watchers like myself, are very familiar with this phenomenon.
These public speakers can make us cry, can motivate us, can make us interested in something that we always thought was completely boring using only the power of their voice (and their body language).

We watch these speakers in awe, wishing that we had been born with the same gifts of communication as they were.

The truth is, however, that even though there is something such as being "a natural", the ability to communicate a message efficiently while entertaining and controlling the attention of a room full of people is something that can be learned. Otherwise, the class Speech 1017 wouldn’t exist.

This Summer semester, year 2021 -still corona times-, on our Speech 1017 class, a group of other students and I, are attempting to learn the basic tools that will initiate us on our journey of becoming great public speakers ourselves.

The first day of classes we virtually met professor Sherri Sinkoff, who is going to be our speech mentor and guide through this short semester.

Professor Sinkoff welcomed us with great excitement, and we quickly found out that our first presentation was going to be in the second class. This was short of only 2 days ahead.

(GENERALIZED STUDENT PANIC!)

Students' minds were filled with nervousness, questions and insecurities about the Impending spotlight moment they had ahead.

I was assigned to Group2

Go Team!!

After class, everyone began preparing their presentations the best we could. We added pictures and videos to our Power Point presentation, we created cheat sheets, cards and reminders.

When the day of the presentation came our WhatsApp group chat was a constant stream of nervous messages. Some students were saying that they were not ready, that they would fail or freeze when their turn came and that they would make a complete full of themselves.

Well, when the time came, when the spotlight was on them, when the mike was all theirs, many of these students shone.

This just comes to show us that there is no room for improvement or self discovery if we don't step outside of our comfort zone.

Group 1 presented Chapter 3 on intercultural communications, we -Group 2- presented Chapter 9 on the nature of groups and Group 3 presented Chapter 10 on leadership and problem solving.

There was a moment of uncertainty regarding wether we were all going to be able to present before our class time ended, so while presenting, some of us skipped the videos we had prepared and just stuck to briefly talking about their contents in order to make time for all groups and group members to present.

Being the last one of the day, Group 3 felt the time crunch pressure the most. To this pressure, they responded with great cohesion. All team members agreed to let John, who wouldn't be able to present on the following class take the mike first. Therefore, the group's presentation started off with section 10.15 on how teams evaluate solutions and make decisions and then went back to 10.1 on leadership and responsibilities. The presentation followed its natural course there on.

Setting the slight time crunch and technical difficulties natural of a virtual learning environment aside, in my opinion, the day was a complete success. Our first experience in public speaking this summer was scary and filled with uncertainty, but at the end of the day we stuck together, we pushed through discomfort, we grew, and, I think, we nailed it!