whoa, it's August!?!

I dislike public speaking. Mainly because I'm just no good at it. I had to give a presentation in class today on a paper entitled Little Evidence for Developmental Plasticity of Adult Hematopoietic Stem Cells. Riveting, I tell you. But the point is that I hate giving presentations because I always get ridiculously nervous. No matter how much I remind myself to command the deeper voice, I end up talking way too fast in a super high-pitched tone. And although I'm not one of those people who repeats umm, I repeat and instead, automatically turning all of my sentences into run-ons. At some point, I tend to lose my train of thought, because I'm so focused on my anxiety and then I scramble to regain control. It could be worse in my mind than reality, but still it's not a pretty sight. Basically I don't think that I like being the center of attention. It makes me nervous. I'm probably being too self-conscious. Anyway, to my surprise, today I overcame my usual nervousness. I spoke calmly and clearly without fear of being asked questions that I wouldn't have answers to. And I felt great doing it. It may be a residual effect of that wine flight that I had last night. Whatever. Don't rain on my parade.