Public speaking

This is a photo of my dad, taken 18 years ago, doing the "father-of-the-bride" speech at my wedding. My dad is my role model when it comes to public speaking because he is just not comfortable speaking in public, but you would never be able to tell that he wasn't. When he's on stage or in front of a crowd, he holds their attention as well as any regular public speaker would by doing one small thing....he tells jokes. By being a stand-up comedian, he not only gets people laughing but the audience's laughter seems to settle his nerves. Once he get's going, there's no stopping him after that. He's able to subtly put his point across as well as entertain the audience.

I too am definitely not a born public speaker. Having observed friends and family members as well as pastors in church and politicians, I often wonder how it is that some people just seem to be able to walk up to the front of a crowd and speak clearly, confidently and without making any mistakes. I seem to take on my dad's example, using humour to get things going. Although that works a majority of the time, there's that awkward moment when I say something that I think is funny and no-one laughs. Trying to figure out why, whilst continuing with the presentation is always the worst feeling in the world and often I stumble over my next few words, trying to still appear in control.

For this university communication paper that I've been working on, one of the assessments is to present to a politician, my team's views on an aspect of current organ donation legislation. Fortunately, we were offered a variety of methods to do this, so we opted for a powerpoint presentation with a voice-over. I find that I'm quite comfortable communicating behind a screen, like emailing or now blogging, because I cannot see or do not have to physically speak to my audience. Doing the voice-over bit was the worst experience though because I realised that I really don't like the sound of my own voice. To me, it sounded nothing like me. Isn't that bizarre? Anyway, I've learned over time that I am not and will never be a confident public speaker. I hesitantly do my share when needed e.g for a tuition session at work or sometimes when called on for church presentations or seminars, but that's it. I personally am happy with that as it was never my dream to speak in public. To those that do and those that comfortably can, you do an amazing job and I salute you.