The moment you realize that you’ve changed can be an alarming one. I had ‘my moment’ recently, when something that many people would consider to be their worst nightmare happened to me… and my first instinct was to blog about it (guess I’m a bona fide blogger now!).

So what was this horrible incident? It wasn’t that bad, really. Just had my life flash before my eyes in a room full of people, no biggie right?

You may have been previously made aware, but I am oh-so-close to finishing my Bachelor of Commerce degree from Gustavson UVic. It can be high-stress, with lots of group work and many, many presentations. A lot of people hate public speaking; I’ve never really minded it and I’ve always been pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.

creative commons image courtesy of Lee J Haywood

And then there was Tuesday.

Spending the weekend at Sasquatch probably didn’t help, going to bed too late the night before probably didn’t help, getting more nervous than I’ve ever been about a presentation definitely wasn’t doing me any favours. Leaving my notes at my seat was an incredibly silly move. I had two minutes to pitch a venture concept that my roommate and I thought up, and I knew my stuff. I was feeling great (but kinda groggy), confident (but kinda shaky) and I was ready to go (mostly).

Nailed the first sentence, and then blanked. Laughed it off, re-started and got stuck on the same word. Panic, panic, PANICKED. Left the class to compose myself, knowing that I’ve never seen anyone do that in a presentation. Ever. I gave myself five seconds to get my game face on and I charged back in. All four of my professors were looking at me apprehensively, the class was probably waiting for me to throw up on myself or faint.

I grabbed my notes, and I killed it.

In a room full of 60 people, the last thing you want to do is screw something up that you know you rock at. If you’re lucky, it’ll be a room full of friends like mine. And even if it isn’t, you’ll survive… with a funny story.