Overall, my speech went better than I expected. Speeches have made me nervous since the first speech I gave in high school, but I think I managed to take lessons I’ve learned from past speeches and apply them to this one.
For example, one of the most common pieces of feedback I received after my speeches in high school was that I played with my hair and clothes a lot. For my civic artifact speech, I purposefully wore my hair up so I wouldn’t play with it, and I successfully avoided any distracting habits of playing with my clothes.
However, I did not manage to prevent all the common mistakes I made in speeches in high school. When I get nervous, I tend to speak very fast, no matter how much I try to pace myself as I speak. This speech was no exception: my speaking was very rushed for most of the speech, at some points so much so that it caused me to stumble over my words.
I also spent far more time practicing this speech than I did for any speeches in the past, and the consequences were positive. I was very confident with my content, and it allowed me to have good eye contact most of the time, unless I was quoting something or citing a source. I also varied my eye contact well, looking at different places throughout the room rather than at just one person.
Despite practicing my speech more than usual, I was still super nervous when it came time to actually give the speech. It’s obvious that I was nervous; there are times, for example, when my voice shakes as I pause. I think the only solution to being less nervous is to practice it even more, possibly even with an audience.
As I go through college and my career, I will have to give many more speeches. Hopefully, I will be able to build upon lessons I’ve learned already, becoming far more confident with public speaking.
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