Stage Fear

Some people will find this surprising about me but I have a lot of stage fear. I feel really uncomfortable when giving presentations. I had 2-3 presentations in almost every class I took during MBA, but I didn’t improve a lot. I’m better when I rehearse thoroughly but it’s never very natural. It’s not as if I am not good with the topic. You could ask me to talk about tennis and I would still be tense. And no, I am NOT conscious at all about what the listeners think of me. Some people just talk as if they were born to do it. I don’t know how they do it. If I recorded my presentations and watched them later, I think I would commit suicide! I think Eminem had me in his mind when he sang “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy…” in the “lose yourself” song. I can add one more quality; my throat gets totally parched and after a while I start sounding like I have a throat infection. This is one of the things I have on my things to do list – improve my speaking skills.

I went out to eat after a long time tonight. I went with my cousin and a friend. It was a welcome break for me since I felt like I was studying and working too much! We always go to the same place, but I don’t mind it a bit. It’s my favorite place to eat in the town; not just food wise, but also the ambience wise. There are quite a few places in the town like that where you can just walk around and have fun. At the same time, you don’t want to do it all the time, cos then it will get boring. Anyway, we had a volleyball tournament the past weekend. A friend dropped by to play and it was nice to see him after a long time. It’s really important for me to play with friends; it’s actually more important than winning. When we play together, we know very well that even if we shout at each other it’s all good. We lost a really close game in the semi-final but it was good fun. Volleyball is great in the sense that I never take it serious. Of course, I like to win but I never think of it before or after the game. I just go and play.