My first experience speaking in public

When I saw this week's prompt topic I remembered the time I was transferred to a new school, I started school feeling all happy, and everything was going smoothly till the teacher told the entire class that we were gonna read a story and everyone would be involved in the reading, the worst part was you won't sit you would come in front of the class and read not just read you'll put yourself into the character you are reading, I looked at myself and wondered why my teacher would do that to me, different thoughts ran through my head as I try hard to understand her reasons for saying that or is it a setup, but then if it is why would she set me up, what do I have to offer.

The next day I didn't want to go to school, told my mum I had a fever she touched my neck and tried to feel my temperature but too bad my temperature wasn't cooperating with me, it was saying something else loud and clear that "this girl right here is feeling well" then she asked me to go take my bath and prepare for school, so I did the necessary things and was ready my mum took me to school, I walked into the class feeling invisible, the teacher came in and asked us to bring out our textbook and it was time to read.

I didn't know this particular school did things differently from my former school, the moment she pointed out someone and asked the person to come stand in front of the class and read immediately I asked myself "na so them dey do for here" cause my former school they don't do things be like this. I had enough time to prepare myself and build my self-confidence before it got to my turn cause my seat was very close to the back. I became a motivational speaker and gave myself a few words of affirmation to build my confidence and beat that stage fright.

That was how we were reading till it got very close to my turn then the bell rang for lunch, darn I was so excited but the excitement wasn't much cause we'd come into the classroom after a few minutes, so during the break, I went to hide somewhere and was reading the textbook, I ensured to get every word pronunciation correctly, unfortunately, the bell rang again and it was time, I didn't even eat my lunch cause I felt like I would throw up in the process of reading so I didn't.

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Immediately we entered the class the teacher came in again, I was now wondering if she doesn't rest, like if she had dedicated her life to doing this and we knew what time it was, so we started from where we stopped, you know the worst part no one would tell you it's your turn, you would eventually know without anyone informing you when it gets to your turn cause it was rowed by row. After a few persons finally got to my turn, my legs started shaking, I started sweating profusely, I pretended like nothing was wrong so I walked out with confidence, and held the textbook very close to my face so no one would see my face.

The teacher wasn't seeing my face and was like "Tarila we can't see your face" and please increase the volume of your voice, in my mind I said "This is the highest volume", so I lowered the book a little and started reading at that moment I didn't care about the character part, I was just reading, even in the process of shaking my lips were still moving, I thought I wasn't gonna survive that hot seat, finally I was done and walked back to my sit then if you see the heat that gripped me, I was still shaking while seated.

That was my very first experience speaking in a crowd, after that day, my teacher started doing this reading stuff often, most times she would give us a passage to go read and come back to class the next day and rephrase everything without looking at our textbook, I think she made me fought that stage fright I had, I started building my confidence of speaking in public.

This is my entry to the Hive Naija weekly prompt week 47.

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