Week 6

I always say the only thing that makes me truly happy is personal progress. After my presentation today, I can successfully say I have progressed with my public speaking.

Today, us Empowered girls went to Doe Anderson to present our mockup websites for FutureUp. As normal, I was a nervous wreck. I was trying to run over what I was going to say in my head, but I kept forgetting. Every time I thought about presenting in front of these really important people, my stomach started to hurt and my mouth grew dry. Right up until the point I introduced myself, I was convinced I was going to make a fool of myself.

Then, I said it. “Hello everyone, my name is Akwellé Quaye.” I felt myself smile, and my voice projected throughout the room. After that, I could feel the confidence radiating off of me as I presented. I made eye contact with many people in the room, my stuttering was at a minimum, if not nonexistent. Now, this isn’t that unnatural for me, but usually, I had to focus very hard to make sure I presented myself well. Today, my only thoughts while I was up there were on my mockup website. I felt like someone had taken over my body, but I was benefitting from it. Symbiosis. A year ago, even a month ago, I wouldn’t have been able to have such a good presentation without thinking about it. Today? It was a breeze.

Finishing today successfully made me realize something else: I managed my time extremely well with this project. I had many other projects, some involving Empowered and others having nothing to do with Empowered, or even programming. Last school year, I was really bad at handling my school work, but now, I feel like I would be able to handle a school load even harder than this one and hardly break a sweat. Presenting at Doe Anderson, and preparing for said presentation, made me a more confident, calm web developer and presenter. This was a truly great experience.