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My “About Me” speech that I just gave in my public speaking class last Tuesday was decent, however I kind of rushed it due to the nervousness I had. I opened up my speech by saying how I didn’t have anything nearly as interesting to say about myself compared to the girl that had gone before me; I guess that was a nervous mechanism, since I already started doubting myself from the beginng. I spoke about my family first, because that’s the most important thing in my life. I explained how I am the youngest of four kids ..
Gave all of their Names (Lance, Clemjie, and Jane) and told where they went to college what that they majored in; as well as what they do now for a living. After that, I gave a brief background as to where I grew up and where I currently work. I also explained why and how I ended up going to Middlesex Community College; how I messed up on my loans for Coastal Carolina and etc. I told the class what my hobbies where (what kind of sports I played throughout highschool and throughout my life; cheerleading, field hockey, pole-vaulting, track, softball, etc.
The main purpose of my speech was to inform my peers and my proffessor of my background as well as my hobbies and dislikes; such as my pure hate for my major- Accounting, and how I extremely dislike it. I started to get nervous and forget the order of how my speech was suppose to follow, and abruplty ended it with, “Sooo, that’s about it. ” So, this is the part of the reaction paper where I get to critque myself/my speech. To be honest, I don’t believe that my About Me speech was very strong and well developed.
One of the critria’s i had to meet was a 5 minute max time limit, and I don’t believe I met that. I didn’t time myself while giving that speech, but I believe it was roughly about 3/4 minutes, if that. We were all given a specific purpose — which was to inform your audience of who you are as a person. Many people took different routes of how to explain who they were as a person, some told stories about the tough childhoods they had to deal with, some explain how they ended up at middlesex county college at their age.
While most, like myself, was very bland and just explained where I went to highschool, where I grew up, sports I played, family members, the general, basic information. I wish I had rehearsed it a bit more than just going over it once the night before. To be honest, I thought I didn’t need to rehearse that much. In my head I thought, “how hard can talking about YOURSELF be?! ” Wrong. I got nervous and my speech didn’t really flow as well as I hoped. I didn’t even know how to end my speech properly! I know it seems like I’m bashing myself, but I’m kind of a perfectionist; especially when it’s something as talking!
I’m a very social and outspoken person, so it’s kind of disapointing when all I had to do was stand up in front of the class and talk about myself! But, one thing I believe I did alright on was the volume and tone of my voice when giving my speech. I did not sound monotone, and I kept a very upbeat and lively voice throughout my speech. For my next upcoming speech, I will definately rehearse more than just once, I will make sure I have good transitions from point A to point B, and i’ll be sure to not let my nervousness get to the best of my abilities.