Speaking in front of 300-plus people
“We evolve beyond the person we were a minute before. Little by little, we advance a bit further with each turn.” — Simon (Gurren Lagann)
Recently, I spoke in front of 300-plus people during the Junior Philippine Economics Society’s (JPES) Equinomix event. It was an event for Economics students from all over the Philippines.
The reason I spoke was because I had won a position paper writing contest hosted by the same organization. It was all about how the geopolitical tensions in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are affecting their vision. However, we will not be talking about my position paper.
Rather, I want to express the feeling I had for the whole experience.
First off, the event was very well done. They had proper execution with minimal issues encountered during the whole thing. I appreciated the insights of the speakers and even fellow students. So whether or not I won, I still believed that the event was worth attending.
Moving on, I felt like I had achieved one of my dreams. Call it overreacting because just a little over 300 people seem small but if you were me, you’d mark out all the same.
I’ve always been a very shy boy since elementary in terms of my speaking skills. This was up until senior high school when I finally found my voice and began being more outspoken.
Coming from being someone who always refuses to be seen in a camera and speaking even in class to speaking in front of 300-plus people is one of my biggest achievements. It puts into perspective the tireless hours I put into developing my confidence to be at this level.
And one of the best things about this whole experience is the fact that I’m proud of my presentation. As I mentioned before in some of my responses and even articles, I can be a bit of a perfectionist. So, to be genuinely satisfied with my performance is another thing to be proud of.
I know that this isn’t one of my traditional posts but this has been what I’ve been busy with for the past weeks. I wanted to share this experience to possibly inspire people who are also very silent but secretly want to go out there and speak.
It will take time to build your self-confidence but every second that passes during that time is worth the patience.
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Thank you very much for reading my piece! This has been a very tiring yet fulfilling week for me.
Sorry as well for the quality of the pictures, they are not from the official photographers of the event since they’re still probably consolidating them. Maybe I’ll update it once I receive some higher quality pictures.
