I did my speech today at the church in front of quite a few people. It actually went really well, I didn't stumble on my words, didn't go too fast and I felt that I managed to engage the audience.
It's so empowering to know that I did it and I did it well. I feel that this has definitely made me more confident in myself and that it's just like anything else, in that the more you do it, the better at it you become. And my friends told me at the end that they were very impressed. /swoon
In the end I didn't really follow my parents' advice of looking at certain people whenever I looked up, or looking at a certain spot in particular. The audience were really good, and I felt that they just blended into one massive blob that made up one giant person, which made it less scary.
But I'm still relieved it's over. I feel I can really relax and enjoy myself now, because this thing was always at the back of my mind, and often times when I thought about it I thought of the things that could go wrong. But nothing went wrong, thankfully! It just feels weird, that it had been on my mind for so long and now it's just gone. It went by so quickly. But I really should not have been as nervous as I was.
On another note, the Pipe Band at the church were amazing. I always enjoy that. And the guy that did the other speech alongside me sang a beautiful rendition of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.' The whole thing was quite magical.
And and and, my parents came along to watch, which was really sweet of them. Too bad my grandparents couldn't make it over, as they would have loved the whole thing.