DP Daily Prompt: Witness Protection
When you do something scary or stressful– bungee jumping, public speaking, –do you prefer to be surrounded by friends or strangers? Why?
Bungee jumping requires a lot of courage,it’s not for people like me.
I haven’t been involved in public speaking much, the few times I was forced to do it, I preferred not to have my friends surrounding me. Friends have a peculiar habit of making a mental note of the mistakes I made and refuse to let it go. I am comfortable with the strangers, I’m not worried about what they’ll say because their criticism will not reach my ears. At least this is what I hope.
Once in college I was compelled to take the part of the priest in Shakespeare’s, ‘Twelfth Night’ before I came on the scene I was very nervous, I thought I’d faint. When I finally came on and started speaking all those jitters that I had before seemed to disappear.
A friend of mine once remarked, “you shouldn’t be nervous, you taught for a long time”. Somehow it’s not the same feeling. In that scenario, I knew my students well, I spend hours with them five days a week. I am not uneasy.
: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/dp-daily-prompt-4
Sabethville 
I think that with public speaking, if a person can break the activation energy barrier, they will be just fine. It is getting started which is the hard part.
For me it was before going on stage was the hardest. Once there I do just fine.
Oh, I so agree, Ranu: I was quite happy to stand up in front of a class full of children – but my first time on stage, I was so nervous I nearly fainted! Funny, isn’t it? xxx
It really is funny, my teachers were nuns,you know their looks alone can half kill you.
Dear Ranu,
Thank you for sharing this post with us. It is said that talking in front of others (e.g., public speaking) is stressful to many people.
I do a great deal of public speaking and large classes. I’ve discovered that, over time, the nervousness that I felt some time ago has dissipated. One gets more and more accustomed to speaking in front of others.
Humor is something I use a great deal to make public speaking less stressful for me and more entertaining to the participants. And…if they’re entertained, they’re likely to better absorb what I’m sharing.
All good wishes,
robert
Humor is something i cannot think of when I go before a crowd.