Life throws various challenges at us in different ways and in different phases of our life. The only way to deal with these challenges is to fight our fear and let go off the comfort zone. One such fear that has haunted me all my life was the fear of public speaking.
I was the member of an NGO, Uddeshya, while I was pursuing my under graduate. There was an event organized where a few selected members had to give a speech to a crowd of 400-500 people. I intentionally did not volunteer to address the crowd due to my fear of getting embarrassed publicly. However, on the final day, one of the speakers fell ill and I was supposed to substitute her.
I still remember how I felt that very moment, it was like my worse fear coming true. Although, at that moment I knew that I have to just give my best, as the entire organization would be let down if I backed out. As I began my impromptu speech, I could see the crowd staring at me and I couldn’t help but shiver, however after a few seconds a sense of confidence started building up and suddenly I was no more horrified. There was a change in my thought process within a span of a few seconds and that same crowd seemed comforting to me. Those few minutes of my life somehow really impacted me and made me believe in myself. The one thing mainly it taught me was that we should never refrain from facing what bothers us because by facing it either we emerge victorious or even if we fail, what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger