Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

To answer the prompt, I will say yes, to both. I’ve not exactly done anything major (my ‘stage’ appearances were school plays, and my speeches were wedding speeches), but I can say yes to both.

The school plays often feel like a lifetime ago, but they were fun to perform. In a production of Twelfth Night, I played a drunken fool. In another production (the title of which I forget), I was a drunken fool. I’m sensing a theme.

There is an occasion outside of weddings and plays where I gave a performance, though I’m not sure it counts as either a speech or a play. I had a job interview where I had to speak to a group about a piece of technology. Whilst virtually everyone else spoke of mobile phones, and read from notes, I spoke about TVs, and did so from internal prompts, having sort of rehearsed a bit beforehand.

I believe my willingness to be a bit different, a bit more expressive in my body language (thanks to not peering down at a piece of paper as I spoke), helped me to get through to the next interview stage. I owe my confidence and my flourish to my experiences at school, which provided me with that confidence in the first place.

This is not to say that I am super-comfortable with getting in front of a crowd and speaking. I can do it, and I can mask my nerves, but those nerves are most certainly there. There are times when society expects you to mingle, and I can, but that doesn’t mean I am in my element. I am merely able to shove the twinge of worry to one side, and ignore it. I have not been under any expectations of giving a speech for some time, nor am I likely to appear in a play any time soon, but if I had to, I could make myself do it.