I have not always been scared of facing crowd all my life because I used to have an opposite personality as a kid. I love engaging in social activities so much, and I loved facing the crowd as well; It wasn't a big deal at all. Well, some changes happened and it defined my personality differently. I became this really shy person that hates social gathering so much. I fear facing the crowd so much because I might end up showing severe signs of anxiety. I would start sweating and shaking and my heart beat will double its beat.
However, because of school and other gatherings I have found myself in the past few years, not speaking in public and facing the crowd is actually impossible. For instance; there are group works and presentations in the university and you can not even hide away from it. I had to face my fear of facing crowd a number of times in the university. I can not say that I have gotten over that fear now, but maybe I have ways to handle it better than before. In fact, I am not even sure of that, but let's just believe I have grown due to the experiences I have had. I mean, that must have shaped me in one way of the other.
So, during my final year in the university, all students had to work on personal project and it had phases of presentations; Pre-data, Post-data and Final defence. I knew that there was no way for me to escape facing the crowd in this period. Before those presentations even came, I remember how only the thought of it made me cringe and my stomach turn. I would have done anything to scrap that activity off the school's curriculum but that was not possible.
When pre-data came, I gathered up all the courage that were left inside of me and I headed to the front of the class. It eventually went so well that my supervisor even commended my presentation and that made me feel so good. One important things that I learned from this experience was that; building up your self confidence before facing a crowd is really important and can help a lot. On this very day, my outfit was really nice and I received so much compliments from people and my colleagues as well. Dressing that nice built up my confidence and even with the fact that I was nervous at the beginning of the presentation, it got better quickly and delivered smoothly. I suprised me!
For my post-data and Final defense as well, I had to do the same thing; face my fear of facing the crowd. Honestly, I do think practice can help a wole lot too, so maybe I just need to speak more where there is a lot of people. In fact, for my NYSC, I am thinking of working at a school because I feel that is a great place to start. It's not decided yet, but then, I really want it to get better so I can give a speech one day and be like:
There was a time I used to fear facing crowd so much, can you all even believe that?
And everybody will be suprised and wonder how I must have grown so much, lol.
Thank you for reading❤️