A bunch of Neurons running in parallel

Nerves, Colours and Presentations…
On came the projector
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Presentations
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I’ve done them before…I’ve done them in different languages and I’ve done them in different subject areas…no problem! During the lecture I especially took note to the bad mannerisms and posture stances wanting to make a really good go of it, I really thought I would have no trouble at all.

Mellow Yellow well…turns out Yellow bellied, I under took research with my partner, searching for various physiological and cultural differences and meanings to do with yellow, how wrong could I have been in thinking yellow was just a colour, there’s so much information from search results, so many different meanings and cultural importance’s I was shocked! A slide and a fact sheet were created as visual aids to my presentation, with various facts and meanings of yellow and yellow images…right I’m ready to practise!

Vacating the room not quite knowing where I was going and what for I wondered off down to the drama rehearsal room, down there I read through my script altering here there and everywhere hoping to get it making as much sense as possible so I could go and give a worthy presentation, getting it over and done with. I thought I had rehearsed enough and the clock struck 2 so off I went to meet with the rest of the group to the christened “Green Room” awaiting the call for the long long mile walk. “Dead Man Walking” walking the green mile and all!

Calmly sat in the “Green Room” I was second up. Whoa quick call, lets get it over with. I began the walk up to the operating room and the closer and closer I got the more the nerves built up, the longer the walk felt and the further away the room door got! Knocking on the door everything quickly shot back into place…Bang! The door was right in front of me with my task waiting. As I stood at the front of the room, looking out on the whole of the audience, two to be exact…but with double vision at dizzy heights it seemed like a lot more. I don’t know why I suddenly got a serge of nerves, I’m normally a cool person under pressure, tests have always been nothing to me, confrontation and all sorts of things were people might experience nerves I don’t, but this time…this time I got all the nerves I should have gotten from anything else all thrown into one!

I began the presentation and I believe the only part that was easy was saying my name. I knew that fairly well…first hurdle over but I clipped the hurdle and I was slowly, embarrassingly, gradually, staggering to the floor. All I wanted was a bucket of water for my head, a pint of water (or some other kind of liquid) for my mouth and a bucket of sand to swallow me up. It was terrible and worst off all not only did I know it but the audience did too. Not impressed, I was asked to do a retake which in my opinion went a lot better than the first attempt I knew more than my name, I flicked slides, and half of the audience did agree but unfortunately not the target audience which we’ve all being learning about. I looked like a Duracell longer lasting dancing, moving, jigging all over the place rabbit. My breathing wasn’t correct, I needed deeper breaths, but in my opinion I just needed to breathe!

Joining back up with the other victims down in the Green Room was to be fair a fairly relaxed atmosphere, but minutes felt like hours, oh how it did drag…to great relief we were all called back up to the operating room and sent home.

As much as I am disappointed with how I did, I am however glad it’s over with. I don’t know why my reaction was how it was but I don’t want to relive that situation for a while longer.

Next time I defiantly need to practise and rehearse a lot more and a lot more efficiently than I did this time, maybe practise more methods and work a lot more closely with my visual aids in order to complete the presentation smoothly, I believe the more I know about the subject and what I am doing the easier it will be to me. Jamie