July
5, 2014
While I’m on this Lemons into Lemonade kick
(See “Life’s Just One Big Adventure”), I should point out a huge benefit of
having stage fright, namely that it ensures that I make short speeches.
I once took a temp job for one week as an
administrative assistant to a School-to-Career program. It was behind the
scenes, where I like to be—no muss, no fuss. Eventually I ended up running the
program, which meant that I had to address various school, civic and business
groups on a regular basis. And I have such terrible stage fright that I can
barely remember my own name in front of an audience, much less a speech. So I
made sure I kept the speeches short, short, short, getting to the point without
dramatic flourishes or lots of padding.
Obviously this benefited the audience than
me, but at least nobody groaned and said, “Oh, no, not her again!”
And I did get compliments on my speeches. I
like to think that they were for the clarity and humor of the presentations—but
I doubt that the brevity hurt anything.
So if you have stage fright, just
remember—the audience, at least, will appreciate it.
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