No fear of presenting¶

I'm not a terribly good presenter, but there's one thing I don't have: fear of presenting as such. I'll tell you why in the next paragraph. Anxiety whether people will like what I'm going to tell: yes. But it doesn't matter to me whether there are 3, 30, 300 or 3000 people in the room. Well, I've only tested it till 300.

As a first-year student at Delft University, I joined a student club . Feburary was the month in which the club's birthday was celebrated. One of the activities was a simple debating contest which I participated in. The first round was at the club itself, with just 15 people around or so, so that didn't scare me.

What did scare me was the second round: at the theater evening with some 80 people present, right dead smack center on the stage. That prospect scared me.

When I came on stage, they put the main spotlight on me and my opponent. The result: you were blinded and couldn't see the audience. Only the bright light. So I could concentrate on the debating contest. No fear as you couldn't see the audience anyway. So I noticed I could speak for 80 people without being eaten or getting shot at.

The realisation that I talked center-stage in front of 80 people helped me a lot. The number of people never bothered me anymore after that. A valuable life experience!

I'm naturally introvert: all the basics to be afraid. But my fear of spotlights was cured by spotlights :-)