When I considered taking Communications class a few months ago, I didn’t know what to expect but I wasn’t too worried because I was comfortable with speaking. All my friends who really know me say that I’m talkative and I stuck by that description but deep down I knew that this might not be as simple as I expected it to be. Then I walked into the first class of the day and saw what both the Professor and the syllabus was like. Right after the first day I knew that this class wouldn’t be too strict because our Professor had a vibe that made her seem understanding and considerate, but as I looked down the weeks and saw the assignments that were to come I did get a little nervous but shrugged it off for the future.
We got our first assignment which was an informative piece just giving a rundown of our personal life to the rest of the class so we could all get to know each other a little better. In my head I thought “Well a personal piece that I don’t really need to research for, this shouldn’t be too hard I’ll talk about what happened to me in 2017 since the events in it were relatively fresh in my mind and significant in my life. I went first on the second day, and found myself trembling just a little bit but pulled myself together and performed my speech, only at the end I found out I performed a little worse than I expected. I was so used to telling the stories that I chose to talk about that I passed the time limit by three whole minutes. I still remember my jaw dropping at the sound of 8 minutes as no one before me had passed the time limit, everyone was relatively close to adhering to the rules. Along with that, I realized how many times I used the phrase “you know” as a vocal filler to get myself to get my thoughts together since I hadn’t structured the speech very well in my mind. That was one of my earliest moments of failure and I wanted it to certainly be my last. Although I had passed the limit, the feedback from my peers was still kind as everyone was touched by my stories and acknowledged how hard it was for me to tell them, so at the end of the day I still made an impact.
Over the course of the semester I made sure I took time out to rehearse my speech and make sure that the time limit wouldn’t mess me up again. As for the topics for my future speeches, I didn’t want to do something specific, I wanted to talk about topics that would resonate with my audience and make sure that I had everyone’s attention for the few minutes I was up there. For my informative speech I decided to use humor and wit to describe why the concept of “love” isn’t true. For my persuasive speech I tried convincing my peers to stop trusting their senses so much as they betray you on a daily basis, and for my commemorative speech I once again poured out my feelings and wrote a heartwarming tribute to my bed. This class forced me to think outside the box but also hone my skills as public speaker as I was finally being able to put my talkative skills and fascination with certain ideas and topics and present them to my peers. Despite the days when my heart would be beating minutes before it was my turn to present (which was often times first), there wasn’t a single day where I regretted coming to class. I admired the creativity and honesty of my peers and learned a lot about the type of people they are, and the things that fascinate them. There were some mutual interests and some speeches that completely enticed me. This class has been nothing but an enjoyable learning experience and I will always cherish it as one of my favorite classes in college, I’m grateful for the support from my peers and Professor and I couldn’t ask for a better continuation down my college career.
-Amrit Singh
