I am not a perfect public speaker, and throughout my life I have encountered many situations in which it has been difficult for me to communicate. My main enemy is nervousness, I often get nervous when I have the undivided attention of a group. My most recent break down happened last summer, I had a interview for a job opportunity. It was not a one on one interview, instead it was a group interview.

There were two interviewers and around eight other people who had applied for the job. Everything was going fine until it was my time to speak, everyone else in the room had already described who they were, and why they were applying for the job in a clear and effective way. As my turn to speak approached I grew more nervous on the inside, something that started to notice as I started blushing and sweating. I tried to deliver my description of myself, and suddenly I forgot everything about myself. I struggled, and it was visible. I was speaking in a very low tone, which made it hard for my interviewers to hear me. I was not speaking clearly, stuttered a lot, my pronunciation was terrible, and to top it off I never looked my potential employer in the eyes. Showing that I was not confident about the things I was saying.

All of these things combined resulted in my potential employers taking me out from the interview because they felt as if I wasn’t ready. I knew I had what it took, but my speech impediments didn’t allow me to portray my potential. Just because I didn’t speak clearly, and didn’t have confident body language, I ended up wasting a very good job opportunity. I have learned from this experience in order to improve my qualities as a public speaker. Now when I speak in public I try to have the right tone, something that I am still improving. Regarding my eye contact, I consider it pretty good as of today. I make sure that I look at every audience member in the eyes to make sure that they feel acknowledged, and also to show my confidence behind my points. This situation did embarrassed me a lot when it happened, something that I am grateful for today because it has led to me improving as a public speaker. Public speaking is very important, and not being good at it can ruin so many good opportunities for you.