LJ Idol Exhibit B, Week 2 (Um...)
"Noteworthy"
By the time I reached the start of my senior year of college, most of my core requirements had been taken care of, and I was free to put a couple of electives on my schedule. Looking through the course catalog, a public-speaking class caught my eye, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Gain some confidence, meet new people, learn some stuff that would be useful no matter where I ended up. All the stuff a good well-rounded student should do.
The course had its share of reading and discussion, but the bulk of the assignments, as you might suspect, involved composing and delivering three of our own speeches. After each person's speech, the other students were expected to give feedback and tell them what worked and what didn't.
Most of the other students gave vague, off-the-cuff comments. Me? I took notes. At first I drew quizzical looks for some of my observations, noting every verbal hesitation and tic, but over time I think the rest of the class came to respect what I had to say.
Then it was my turn. I knew I had set the bar for myself rather high, but I was pretty confident I could meet it. That doesn't mean, however, that I wasn't a little nervous--though I happen to think a little bit of butterflies is a good thing.
I went through my eleven minutes and thirty seconds on the attempts at unifying the Catholic and Protestant churches, complete with throwing candy into the crowd and leading a singalong of "Amazing Grace." I only caught a couple of small bobbles on my part, and hoped--perhaps 'wished' is the more accurate word--that my classmates and professor hadn't noticed.
After a couple of vague, complimentary comments from the back of the room, I acknowledge the raised hand of one of the guys in the front. He picked up a notebook with a full page of writing on it, much to the amusement of the class. "I have trained you well!" I joked. I mean, getting my classmates to pay attention and know how to evaluate a speech was part of the point of the course.
After praising the PowerPoint slides and my posture, he added, "I heard one 'um'..."
"I caught it too," I said, "immediately after I said it. And I knew you guys would nail me for it!"