I finished my presentation today. Which means I have 3 essays and 3 exams to go. I was talking with a friend and he said it sounded like a lot of work, but truly, this is the “easiest” term that I’ve had to contend with. Well, at least the term with the least amount of work. My exams are all at the end of the exam period, meaning I have two or three weeks to review my notes and catch up on any reading I’ve fallen behind on. The essays are all clustered, too, but they are, as far as I can tell, topics that I am interested in, so they should be fun to write.

I’ve realized that I actually don’t mind making presentations. In fact, I kind of like it. Strange.

On the topic of presentations, the dean of students at the residence where I used to live asked me to speak at a weekly supper the community has. There is always a speaker (or someone playing music or something along those lines) and there is always a good meal, and at the end of each year, the dean asks two or three of the graduating students to be the speaker for the last supper.

I guess what helps in the liking of presentations is that I don’t really get nervous. I don’t get nervous hardly at all leading up to the presentation. However, almost as soon as I get up there, I get nervous. My hands start shaking such that I am grateful of a podium on which to put whatever papers I may have. Or if I don’t get nervous, half-way through I start evaluating my own presentation: “oh, you said that too quickly”, “you put the emphasis on the wrong syllable”, “oh man, I wonder if people are finding this boring”, etc. The “boring” question almost always comes up. By the time I present, I’ve gone through the material so many times that I’ve forgotten why it captivated me. The good thing to remember is that, for the people listening, this is new material, so whatever wonder I may have lost in the topic due to familiarity hasn’t necessarily been lost in the audience. Hopefully it goes well.