But before I get to the speech, I'll start from the beginning.
Yesterday afternoon, I noticed that my throat was starting to feel scratchy, which immediately made me concerned. By the end of the night it was so bad that swallowing made me grimace in pain.
Despite my dislike of taking medicine, I took a painkiller before bed. But I don't think it helped at all because I woke up each time I swallowed. It felt like swallowing a freaking knife.
Man, I'm so tired right now...
Needless to say, I was terrified that I would lose my voice before my speech.
So when I woke up, I was relived that my voice sounded normal despite stabbing pans when I swallowed XD
So, I took some drugs (and by that I mean cold medicine, but I've already mentioned my dislike of taking medicine), drank a huge mug of tea with honey, and nursed a cough drop during the drive to campus.
By the time we got there, swallowing only brought minor discomfort, so thank god for that (and I kept my hands clean and tried not to touch anything, in case what I had was catching @_@ )
Luckily they had juice/punch there, which also felt nice on my throat.
I had asked to give my speech first, so my Mom could come (she had to teach later in the day).
I think I did a good job. I only had to look at my notes a couple times, aside from my reading sample.
I didn't talk too fast, which was good. That was one of the main things I wanted to fix, aside from glancing at my notes too often.
I think the next thing to work on is looking at the audience instead of just staring blankly in front of me. And smiling more. I'm interested to see if I looked really solemn while I was speaking.
I didn't get nervous at all either. The closest I got was a slight hesitation in one or two spots.
I talked about my project, and read a page from my graduate story. I also talked some about environmental fiction in general.
Ten minutes of talking, five minutes of questions.
I got some good questions,and I think people were interested in what I was saying.
They took a video of it, so I'll try to share that once it's uploaded. And of course once that's out, I'll start critiquing my presentation. Heh.
Aah, man I'm so relieved i made it through with my throat all in one piece. It still feels better, so hopefully I'll be able to sleep normally tonight.
It was a nice event, and I'm definitely glad I went. It's only the second annual one they've done, so it looks like they're going to keep growing it from here.
Man, I'm so tired. But it's early enough that I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep. Maybe I'll actually watch a bit of anime, which I haven't done in ages.
I was looking forward to doing a bunch of writing today, but the level of editing I'm doing now requires more focus than I really feel up to. Maybe I'll do some simpler writing on a different project. I might even write a bit of a fanfic I'm hoping to renew, just for fun.
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