One Presentation Away

Chapter 3Unlock Your Confidence

I was sitting in class as a 13-year-old boy, waiting for my turn to read aloud in front of the class. I had high socks on, gray shorts, and my blue and yellow tie. As I nervously waited and heard each of my classmates read a few paragraphs, I started to get anxious. It was coming closer and closer to me, and soon it would be my turn.

My classmate beside me finished his reading, and now the crucial moment had begun. I started to read my paragraph and, all of a sudden, froze up. I began to stutter over the words, and it almost felt like I had forgotten how to read. Then, my eyes started to go blurry, and I began to experience a level of tunnel vision that stopped me from seeing the words in front of me. I tried to keep pushing through as I didn't want to look stupid in front of the entire class. What was weird was that I had been reading for years—it was something I could do—but for some reason, I couldn't do it in front of the class. About halfway through the paragraph, I stopped reading, took a breath, and then tried as hard as I could to finish the last few sentences. When I finished, it moved on to the next kid in the class, and I sat through the rest of that lesson mulling over what had just happened.

As I walked out of that classroom, I remember thinking, “What is wrong with me? Everyone else in the class can read fluently, and I'm the only one who really struggled with that exercise.”

Creating Meaning

From that experience, because I couldn't ...