I hate presentations. I dislike the feeling of laying yourself bare before people, knowing that there are people making judgements (nice ones and otherwise) about you as a person and about the presentation itself. But on the plus side, I think the process often allows the group to be more open with each other; probably because if you go up and make a bumbling fool of yourself, there isn’t much you could do after that can really compare.
Personally, the NYTimes presentations came with a lack of preparedness because I had done the post several days earlier and neglected to refresh my memory right before (horrible, I know; I shall endeavor to take note and not to do this again). It also sucked to go first. Not just the first presentation of the assignment, but the first presentation in ever in college. For that I’d like to specially thank our group leader. Sarcastically, but at the same time not really. The experience of making all the errors and having them pointed out to us will probably be seared into my memory now and (hopefully!) make future presentations all the less painful. So really, thanks Ash.
In my opinion watching the presentations were much more entertaining. For one, the other topics were interesting and presented issues in a new light; I will never look again at a snack without thinking about the piles and piles of sugar that I would be putting into my system. It was also very entertaining to see the different ways that my classmates presented themselves, like in posture and in speech.
In all, I learned/made note, that in presenting, posture and body language is just as important as what comes out of your mouth; talking to a group of people would not be so horrible with preparation (and oxygen); and that going first should still be avoided as much as possible, so long as you learn something from the poor and unfortunate group who were first.
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