Overcoming one of my biggest fears at Hispanicize

One of my biggest fears for years has been public speaking. I have dreaded it for as long as I can remember despite having taken a Public Speaking class in college and having obtained a passing grade of B. It’s something I swore I wouldn’t do because I was so scared of making a fool of myself. It’s crazy how life throws at you what you dread the most in order to make you face your fear.

The last time I spoke in public was in that same college class which was years ago, that is, up until recently. This past week at Hispanicize I faced my fear not once but several times. I had sworn off of public speaking but last week I was in a sense forced to come face to face with it again. I ended up moderating a panel of speakers, I spoke on a panel myself, I was part of a podcast, I presented a speaker in a session, and I was also interviewed on camera! How’s that for fear of public speaking?! Was I scared and anxious? Surprisingly, no.

As I mentioned in a previous post, after my move, I decided that I was no longer going to restrict myself and was going to take risks. This was one of them. I went from not speaking at all in public to speaking several times throughout the week, and you know what? I survived! It felt awesome because I proved to myself once again that I can overcome whatever fear I have. It’s all about having the right mindset. It really does have to do with you setting your mind to wanting to overcome it. When I was offered these opportunities, I never once thought about saying no. I realized that this was my opportunity to face it and overcome it, and I did! It’s an amazing feeling to overcome something you were so scared of and realize that you can actually be good at it. Now that I’ve overcome that, I feel like I wanna do more public speaking! Weird how that works out, huh? Thank you to those who offered me these opportunities and helped me in a way overcome one of my greatest fears. It was such a growing and learning experience for me and for that I am thankful. I feel like I’m unstoppable! Now I say, on to the next one! 

Check out some of the pics from last week.

What’s one of your biggest fears? Don’t let fear get the best of you and just go for it! Believe me, it’ll feel amazing!