Friday, September 4, 2009

Just Breathe

Today my firm gave a presentation to about 100 special ed staff members of a school district on the do's and don'ts of an IEP, how to analyze a request for due process hearing, and basic special ed law.

On Wednesday, I was informed that I would be giving part of the presentation. I loathe public speaking. Which is strange for a lawyer. I hate going to court. One of the reasons I like special ed law so much is that a vast majority of it is practiced via administrative hearings, which are like a trial with evidence and witnesses, but way less formal. Like you get to sit while you are examining a witness. I'm not sure why sitting makes it better, but it does.

Luckily, today's presentation was already written. All I had to do was review it and present it. I was feeling fine about it, until I got up to the podium. As background, let me also mention that my hair looked like stringy crap, my suit was way too big (which normally would be a good thing, but I looked like a little kid playing dress up), and oh yeah, I had a big glowing zit on the end of my nose that I tried to cover up with layers of makeup. I was not feeling at the top of my game by any means. I started to talk and I could hear that annoying quiver in my voice. The one that says, I'm so scared I might pee. Plus, I have never used powerpoint to give a presentation, so that was making me nervous as well.

I got through the talk, it was over, I could breathe again. I beat myself up all day about the presentation. I was convinced that I sounded like a young, immature, moron. At the end of the day, my boss emailed me. I saw the subject line, it said School District Talk. I thought, great I'm going to start my weekend by getting reamed for being a moron who can't talk with stringy hair and a zit on her nose. The email actually said that the district's special ed director was glowing with praise about my presentation and that my boss really appreciated me taking it on. Hallelujah! But, I still have that damn zit on my nose.

1 comment:

  1. Great job, and I totally agree public speaking is the worst.

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