# Successful First Day of Speech Class!



## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

:boogie

I took two Xanax, just to be fair here. I'm sure thats why I felt comfortable enough in the class. We had to go around the room & introduce myself & say some things about myself. I blushed a little bit & was fiddling with my pen but it went well! I also volunteered to give a potential topic. & Then, to cap it all off, have a good conversation with the professor after class. Totally not nervous at all!

Now, shower me with praise, people! :clap


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## MindOverMood (Dec 12, 2009)

:yay:yay:yay


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## layitontheline (Aug 19, 2009)

:high5 That's great!


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## Rest or Real? (Apr 1, 2011)

My hat is off to you, Monroee. Great job .


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## Vip3r (Dec 7, 2010)

Congrats! Well done! :yay:clap


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## crsohr (Dec 30, 2010)

Congrats, I'm happy for you! What name did you introduce yourself as in front of everyone? Was it Marilyn?


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

crsohr said:


> Congrats, I'm happy for you! What name did you introduce yourself as in front of everyone? Was it Marilyn?


Actually "Anna", one of my secret other alter-egos. The teacher said he loves the name Annabel. So it was received well. :boogie


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## dustbunnies (May 18, 2011)

Monroee said:


> :boogie


I love that emoticon. Anyway, congratulations! Hope you do well for the rest of the class!:clap:boogie:clap


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## wmw87 (Apr 20, 2011)

Great job.


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## kesker (Mar 29, 2011)

It's a good feeling. Build on it. I used to think it was cheating to use medication to help me through the "shattering into a thousand sharp irregular shards of glass" but I soon found that a couple Lorazepam could stick my feet to the floor and allow me to stay in the room. If you can stay in the room and be in the room, (especially with your potential) you can make anything happen. I would have liked to have seen you in action. Maybe video the next speech class? Sorry, dumb. Excellent job!


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## eric254 (Nov 8, 2010)

Awesome! I always get nervous when I have to do an introduction to the class, but I end up realizing most people only care about themselves or are thinking about what they are going to say.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Kesker - I used to think that medication was "cheating" as well. But really, now that I think about it, its only allowing me to assert my full potential (like you said), & exert my knowledge & "true" speaking skills to the class. My social anxiety disorder is an illness that requires medications, I shouldn't feel ashamed to use them in order to let my true self shine through.

Thanks for the response.


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## ReincarnatedRose (May 20, 2011)

Monroee said:


> Now, shower me with praise, people! :clap


:lol:lol:lol

As you wish! :b

YOU ARE AMAZINGLY BRAVE! GREAT JOB!


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## DoNoTWalKFLY (May 18, 2011)

:banana Well then i guess its peanut butter jelly time ! Well done


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## Sapphiress (Jun 15, 2010)

way to go!! :clap *joins in peanut butter jelly dance :banana


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## sansd (Mar 22, 2006)

Congrats!


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

My first speech is on Tuesday. & I volunteered to go first. :um


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## PeakOfTheMountain (Oct 3, 2010)

Monroee said:


> My first speech is on Tuesday. & I volunteered to go first. :um


Do you find that going first might be less anxiety provoking? I mean given that the anticipation of doing a speech is pretty nerve wracking and when you have to wait for everybody before you to get through, you reach a high anxiety level. (i'm asking because thats what i experience)


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

PeakOfTheMountain said:


> Do you find that going first might be less anxiety provoking? I mean given that the anticipation of doing a speech is pretty nerve wracking and when you have to wait for everybody before you to get through, you reach a high anxiety level. (i'm asking because thats what i experience)


Yeah, I volunteered because it actually decreases the anxiety level. Having to sit & watch everyone else is pure torture. I wanna get it over with right when I enter the class at 8:30 AM.


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## lyssado707 (Oct 29, 2004)

Oh wow. U did great!! Congrats :boogie:boogie:boogie


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## Ambitious (Apr 17, 2011)

YAY for you! Keep going and you can only keep on feeling great and greater after the classes. Good to see some people actully put themselvs out there and start things where anxiety will e produced...buts thats the only way to get over this so YAY again and keep filling us in on how your getting on


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## srenee (Apr 23, 2011)

Wow good job!!! I'm going to be in that spot in a week and I'm just getting more terrified :/ I really want to drop. But good to know you are getting through it


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Well done !


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## Zeddicus (Apr 1, 2009)

Congratulations! You've at least made it past the first day, which is more than I've accomplished. :|


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## deelishuss (Apr 5, 2009)

fantastic!!! and chatting with the professor too? rock star! 

it's not cheating if you didn't start off on the same playing field as everyone else. now you are, so well done


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

The speech went terrific! I was a little nervous but I got through successfully, remembered all my parts. My teacher was proud that I was going first & probably gave me some leeway. He gave me his thoughts & criticism afterward & it was all good!!! The only comments he made was about some slides had too much words & I needed to improve my eye contact. Which I mentioned that "yeah, I have some anxiety about eye contact that I need to work on". But overall, it went amazing! I now have confidence that I can do the next two speeches.

I was outgoing the whole class period. I was giving people compliments when they were done, making comments to the teacher, asked loads of questions. I even asked him about the rats during break time. He said unfortunately, he used to have rats but at his old age he can't take care of rats properly anymore. Which I said was alright. But we talked quite a bit about it. I think its nice that he's getting to know me. He knows my name throughout all the people! Haha, that surely will improve my grade.. =p

YAY.


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## mkat (Apr 24, 2011)

Wow, that is so awesome Monroe! Congrats. You should feel so amazing about this accomplishment. You are very inspiring. Keep it up & good luck with the rest of the class!


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## Jess32247 (Jun 4, 2011)

:yay Congrats! :yay 

Keep up the good work! :high5


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## kikiwi (Aug 4, 2010)

woohoo...thats really awesome...congrats..=D


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## ThisGuy (Jul 13, 2010)

Now, if only I could do that... :con

A round of applause for Monroee:

:clap :clap :clap :clap :clap


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Thanks everyone! My second speech is coming up fast. I'm doing it on a local pet store chain that practices are irresponsible. Also have to make a hypothetical plan for making breeders more accessible. Should be interesting but its definitely more challenging than the first speech which was on anything. This has to be on a local issue with an action plan.

I hope my class receives it well. :um


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

The day you do this without pills is the day that I'll praise you for 12 hours straight.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

AntiAnxiety said:


> The day you do this without pills is the day that I'll praise you for 12 hours straight.


I'm doing my next two without pills.

So, start supporting. :roll


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## Ambitious (Apr 17, 2011)

Monroee said:


> I'm doing my next two without pills.
> 
> So, start supporting. :roll


Without pills :afr

My support start right here!!!

I went to somewhere recently and id usually take my xanax ALL the time. This thim i didnt, i was brickn' it, but when i got there it wasnt as bad as i thought. I think its always worse in our heads.

What you can do is some visualization for the worry.

1) see the situation
2) think of the best out come you can have
3) what feeling can give you this best out-come?
4) when have you experienced those feeling before?
5) get the feelings into your body right now
6) turn them up, like the volume on a radio
7) now see yourself in the situation
8) see yourself not being okay, but being AMAZING
9) see it from the expression on your face, body movment etc.
10) now see yourself walking out of that situation having done the best you have ever done before and feeling great

This is mental rehearsal, it helps you to catch your worrying thoughts. If you do this once a day, over time you will automatically catch your negative worries and correct them to the feeling and visualization that is at the end of the excercise...

Honestly, it really works, im living proof of it. I dont know where i was without it 

YOU CAN AND WILL BE FINE WITOUT PILLS!!!



Let us know how it goes...


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

Monroee said:


> I'm doing my next two without pills.
> 
> So, start supporting. :roll


That's what I want to hear. I don't even care what happens. Whether you do great or freeze up, I'll be proud.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

AntiAnxiety said:


> That's what I want to hear. I don't even care what happens. Whether you do great or freeze up, I'll be proud.


:boogie


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

So, problem. My next speech is on Tuesday & its really not good. It's only 5 minutes long so its pretty short. The time limit is 5-7 minutes, but still, its short. I'm lacking some of the requirements & I'm not that good at speaking about this issue. I have a feeling I'm gonna be panicking up there. Because when you're not confident about your presentation, you can get anxious & panicky REAL fast.

I may take a Xanax again. GAH.


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

Monroee said:


> So, problem. My next speech is on Tuesday & its really not good. It's only 5 minutes long so its pretty short. The time limit is 5-7 minutes, but still, its short. I'm lacking some of the requirements & I'm not that good at speaking about this issue. I have a feeling I'm gonna be panicking up there. Because when you're not confident about your presentation, you can get anxious & panicky REAL fast.
> 
> I may take a Xanax again. GAH.


I'm in speech class and my instructor said that if a speaker brings notes up to the podium, they should be applauded because they're prepared. This is because if you don't bring notes and you freeze up, you're finished. What I do is, I write the speech and I time myself while reading it. Just get it close to the time and don't worry about it it. I was so concerned with the time a few weeks ago (4-6 minute speech) but I cleared 6 minutes by 48 seconds. All you really gotta do is slowly read what you wrote and give eye cobtact every few lines. Unless your teacher is the type to subtract points for nervousness, I wouldn't use those pills. It's not easy but I believe you can do it?


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Thanks AntiAnxiety for the support. I am allowed note cards but theres not much I can use them for since all the "cues" for me are on my powerpoint slides. I just started using my note cards for this one & the only thing I have is a smiley face with "ONLY 5 MIN" written below it. Haha.

I did time myself, its about 5 minutes, which is the minimum.

I can't wait to get this over with. It seems that these days before Tuesday are actually going SLOWER than usual. I guess because I'm so antsy to just want to get it over with.


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

Monroee said:


> Thanks AntiAnxiety for the support. I am allowed note cards but theres not much I can use them for since all the "cues" for me are on my powerpoint slides. I just started using my note cards for this one & the only thing I have is a smiley face with "ONLY 5 MIN" written below it. Haha.
> 
> I did time myself, its about 5 minutes, which is the minimum.
> 
> I can't wait to get this over with. It seems that these days before Tuesday are actually going SLOWER than usual. I guess because I'm so antsy to just want to get it over with.


No problem! And think about this, if you get to use a PowerPoint it's even easier because half the people will be looking at that instead of you and you can read what you're supposed to be saying right off of the slides. Just go up there and do your best. If you're nervous, you're just nervous. There's no reason be ashamed of something you have no control over.


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## Ambitious (Apr 17, 2011)

5 mins will fly by...

I remember i had a presentation to do and i prepared lodza stuff for it. Ended going waay over the time. So keep it simple for yourself! If you can!

Also something that helped me loads was i stood in front of my mirror and practiced over and over again. I even done my presentation in front of my sister a few times.

Practice makes perfect and perfection doesnt matter, all that matters is you get up there and do it.

After you do it make sure you reconise what a huge achievement you have just made.

Good luck and let us know how it goes


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Thanks everyone. I'm starting to feel a bit better about having a sucky second speech. Because I've started working on my 3rd & last speech about Snow White & I'm very passionate about it & I'm certain it will be amazing.

So, even if I bomb this one, I can make it up with the last one.

Still incredibly nervous having to give a horribly put together speech. I simply can't put anything more into it than I haven't already.


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

Monroee said:


> Thanks everyone. I'm starting to feel a bit better about having a sucky second speech. Because I've started working on my 3rd & last speech about Snow White & I'm very passionate about it & I'm certain it will be amazing.
> 
> So, even if I bomb this one, I can make it up with the last one.
> 
> Still incredibly nervous having to give a horribly put together speech. I simply can't put anything more into it than I haven't already.


You'll see other people in your class who feel the same way but don't say it. Nervousness doesn't really show either. After I did my last speech and was watching others, I looked EXTREMELY closely at a guy who I thought was completely calm during public speaking but he was shaking!


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

Big day is tomorrow. I'll be waiting to see How it all ended up. You got this


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## softshock11 (Jan 9, 2011)

:clap:nw:yay


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

It went much better than was expected. LOL.

I did my horrible speech. I went first to get it over with. I talked to my professor during break. I went up to him & said, "it was bad wasn't it?" & He admitted that it was lacking but he said it wasn't bad. Ya know, he said we're more in tune to our mistakes than the audience. He was compassionate to the fact that I had some personal disturbances at the time. He knew I had the potential to do better based on my first speech. So, I think, overall, it went better than was expected. At least with my professors reaction.

My next speech is gonna bad a$s though! I'm so excited about the topic. & So is my professor LOL. He said it was a great topic in front of everyone.


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

See?? I knew you'd pull it off. 66% of people experience some amount of nervousness during public speaking. What sets you apart from some of those people is the fact that you can keep from panicking when it happens. Now that you did it once you know that you can do it again and again.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Thanks antianxiety.  I'm so glad I was able to pull it off even though it was a horrible speech. I guess, all that matters is how you speak in the situation, how you handle it, not so much the content, but more how confident you are when presenting.

One more to go & then this is over with. *takes deep breath*


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## modus (Apr 27, 2011)

Monroee said:


> I guess, all that matters is how you speak in the situation, how you handle it, not so much the content, but more how confident you are when presenting.


You don't know how hard you just hit the nail on the head there. It really is 80% how you deliver your speech and how confident you _seem_. Whole nations have been won over by insane leaders just because they spoke so charismatically.

I know you'll do well on your last speech. You've settled in nicely and have a love for your speech's subject.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

exobyte said:


> You don't know how hard you just hit the nail on the head there. It really is 80% how you deliver your speech and how confident you _seem_. Whole nations have been won over by insane leaders just because they spoke so charismatically.
> 
> I know you'll do well on your last speech. You've settled in nicely and have a love for your speech's subject.


Hehe, I had a type of enlightenment!

I'll definitely let you know how it goes on Tuesday next.


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## aanner (Jun 20, 2011)

not to sound like a complete idiot, but are Xanax sold over the counter? and if they are, how much are they??


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

aanner said:


> not to sound like a complete idiot, but are Xanax sold over the counter? and if they are, how much are they??


No. It's a prescription medication. It has a high addictive threat to it.


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

Did you gave your last speech yet?


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

AntiAnxiety said:


> Did you gave your last speech yet?


Sorry. I forgot to update this thread. Haha.

Yes, I did. & Guess what? WITH NO BENZO.

I was so extremely god damn nervous. But I did it. I feel like I at least accomplished my worst fear with no medical help. I feel great about it.

My class is now over & I feel great to have gotten it out of the way.


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## AntiAnxiety (Jan 8, 2011)

Monroee said:


> Sorry. I forgot to update this thread. Haha.
> 
> Yes, I did. & Guess what? WITH NO BENZO.
> 
> ...


Many times you overthink things so you just have to make yourself do it. You were real nervous but it was nothing you couldn't handle. And I know you feel great now. What will you do next?


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