Public writing is not always my cup of tea. I am not usually the girl you will see talking in front of a big audience of people who I do not know. Although I am outgoing and love to meet people, I still get nervous when a big crowd is sitting quietly in front of me. As a college student, we need to become more interactive with our peers because this will be the best way to accomplish many goals in life.
My senior year of high school, I decided to write an essay for the Martin Luther Kind Jr. scholarship for my community. Three African-American students receive this scholarship along with one white student. The essay topic was how the words of Martin Luther King Jr. will fit into your career you choose after graduation and how you will use his ideas in your everyday life. I wrote a story about my uncle and how I will use his dreams in my job as a nurse or occupational therapist.
After I found out that I won this scholarship, I had to meet several requirements. I never thought it would be hard so I did it. The last requirement was to read your essay in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. program my hometown had. I read my essay in front of nearly one hundred African American citizens. I was very nervous because I felt that I wasn’t in the right place and people wouldn’t like what I had to say. After the program was over I had a ton of people come up to me and tell me how great my essay was and it really meant something.
I felt that I accomplished a goal of being able to speak in front of people different from my own race. I want to be able to tackle this goal completely after graduating college. I feel that Ohio State will allow me to meet new people as well. I know there are other people out there that have to same phobia, and I know you can jump that struggle!
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Congrats on winning that scholarship! That's so awesome!! I bet it was insanely scary to get up in front of you hometown to read your essay. I would have been freaking out. It sounds like such a neat experience, though, that you had the opportunity to win the essay contest and then read it in front of people. Good job! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a really hard thing to do to put yourself out into the world like that, especially in a situation where you have a clear difference from your audience. How long did it take you to decide that you were confident enough in what you had to say to deliver a speech like that? Even though most people aren't normally bothered by issues of race, there's still sort of a common element of nervousness that not everyone would admit to as easily as you did. Congratulations on your scholarship, as well as your courage to say all the things you had to in order to get it.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, let me say congratulations!
ReplyDeleteWhen I got to probably about the eighth grade I was the same as you: outgoing, loud, and sociable but TERRIFIED to speak in front of a huge crowd of people. I had to accomplish that task my senior year because I was the class president and had to speak at graduation-- YIKES! But I got over it and it was fun and I would do it all over again.
In a way, I feel how you feel about having to speak in front of people who are not my race. I really feel that way being here at Ohio State. Sometime during my time here at OSU, I hope to tackle that challenge. But very agreeable blog!
Once again, Heather, I have to applaud you for dealing with what had to be one of the most difficult rhetorical situations ever. I'm still terrified of public speaking, even though I've been teaching for, oh, six years or so now. But I agree that getting more comfortable with writing and speaking publicly is quite important.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, too, what this experience would have been like if the audience was mainly of your race? Would it have been just as hard? Or did that sort of difference complicate it even more? If it did (and I imagine it did), I'd love to think more about why...and I'd love to think about how writing and communicating in general can bridge certain gaps and differences. So your post has me really inspired! :)