Last oral in front of a school audience… August 3, 2007
Posted by Donovan in God, Interesting, Personal, School.6 comments
Woot!! I will never have to use the word ‘oral’ again except maybe if it’s about oral hygiene haha
It was kind of strange, after I had finished it, I thought I would experience real relief especially since it’s my last one but I didn’t. I think that deep inside I really want to improve in public speaking especially after I read Who You Are When No One Is Looking by Bill Hybels, by the way thanks again Chris for it. I highly reccommend it to anyone who wants to improve in character. It really inspired me about courage. One line did it all, “courage doesn’t find you, you have to chase after it.” It even had an example of a woman who found the courage to overcome her fear of public speaking becaus she wanted to share a testimony. Exactly like me. I’m like most people, always didn’t like orals but actually didn’t mind this one.
It was amazing, my volume didn’t really drop, I was able to look up almost all the time and hardly felt nervous at all. Praise God! 
Well, towards the end I forgot a little bit and started to feel a little more nervous then haha. What made it easier was that most people were either outside practicing or inside but not paying attention. My english teacher is sooo nice. A funny thing happened throughout the whole thing. Because it was a eulogy, we had a podium to stand behind where we put our prompt sheet. Thing is, our podium was a music stand and it wasn’t done up tightly. So I was actually holding the podium quite tightly and pushing it down very slowly and only at the end did I notice the stand was quite low when the teacher pointed it out to me haha lol.
After I had thought about it, to me, God was the podium. I kept clinging on to it and it gave me confidence. What I really want to say is, no matter what dilemma you’re facing, know that if you cling on to God, He’ll give you that confidence that everything will be OK.
P.S Not to sound like I’m boasting but I only used the prompt sheet like twice 
Man, I must’ve been really confident. Yay!!
Orals August 1, 2007
Posted by Donovan in Amusing, Interesting, School.add a comment
Whenever there’s an oral to be done, everyone always seem to want to do it last. I used to be like that. I find it kind of dumb now. Last year, I had to do an oral with a partner. The teacher asked who would like to go first. So my partner said we would go first. I don’t know about you but I was like shocked for a moment haha. It was really good though cause like since you go first, you’re not pressured into beating the other people. And the just the thought of getting it over and done with is so true, when you get postponed you think that’s a good thing ie extra practice(which never happens haha) etc but the anxiety just increases so dramatically.
I was supposed to be on last today but time ran out and have to do it tomorrow. So what happened to me, I liked and didn’t like at the same time. Do I feel more anxious right now? Not really, if it was next week, I probably would be:P After this one, no more orals for me Well, I do have French orals but they are way less stressful, it’s just you and the teacher, no audience (on the rare occasion, you might haha, I haven’t had that privilege yet)
On a side note, at ice skating, a random thing happened. Girls were holding up signs that said “Free high fives” and “Free hugs.” Now, there’s usually a group of girls that stand on the other side of the rail and give high fives to you when you go past. Supposedly, I gave one of them a really hard high five and now they mention it everytime they see me lol. By the way, I got one hug lol. She almost fell over after letting go, she was so lucky we were near the rails.
P.S I haven’t fallen in ice-skating yet and don’t assume I mean I hold the rails 
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