Hooray For Me!

What good is it having a blog if you can't toot your own horn? My presentation on Saturday went fantastically, thank-you-very-much.

I was the last of several speakers that were presenting to a group of women from numerous churches over a three-day period. I didn't have a lot of time to think about my presentation early on, but whenever I did I was a bit nervous. Would I make a mistake? Would I forget what I had to say? Would the audience like what I had to say? At breakfast Saturday morning, several people wished me luck. It made me feel less apprehensive, knowing they were pulling for me.

After breakfast we met in the conference room to get the day started. The first speaker of the day gave her awesome talk, then finished it with inspiring music that got me pumped up; it was a signal that it was almost time for me. When her music finished I left the room to get ready. Since I was speaking after breakfast, I had originally dressed in jeans and a tee--I didn't want to have any spills down the front of my good shirt! My dress clothes were in a room off the main foyer of the building, so I quickly grabbed them and changed in the bathroom. I spoke to a couple of my fellow team members for a few minutes, then got a signal that it was time to enter the conference room.

I spoke for about a half-hour. The audience seemed very interested, chuckled at all the appropriate parts, and seemed to empathize with me. I stumbled over a word once or twice, but I don't think it was too obvious. I used my printed script more than I thought I would, but since the other presenters also did, I didn't feel too bad about it.

When I was done everyone applauded. I left the room to change my clothes again, and missed most of the group discussion. However, several people who were there told me that there was some great exchanges going on, and later in the day I had people come and strike up a conversation with me about my talk.