Prompt 39

All the desks in the room were almost filled. The lighting was dark, with only a little sunlight coming in through the cracks on the sides of each window shade. I sat squinting at the note cards on my desk through the shadows of the dark room. I was reviewing all my research, making sure I had it all down pat before I had to strut my stuff.

"OK, we're ready for you Jordan" Mr. Bragdon said as he looked at me and shuffled the papers in his hands into a neat pile.
"OK, thank you".

I stood up out of my chair and slowly walked by the two rows of people, passed Mr. Bragdon's desk up to the front of the classroom. There in front of me was a podium and a projector projecting my slideshow up on the white board behind me. I was about to give the biggest speech/presentation in my entire high school career. I had worked all semester to get to where I was in that moment. Sitting at the table just outside the classroom door to the right of me is where I did all my research. I knew so much about my topic (Down Syndrome) that there was no way I would fail this. I was sure even though I had some presentation jitters, that I would be successful in educating the audience on my topic.

As I prepared mentally for my presentation in the few seconds remaining before I had to begin I scanned the room to see all the  guests that had come to hear what I had to say, some I invited and some I did not. There were more than I expected, however I still felt quite confident because I realized it was mostly all people I was comfortable speaking in front of no matter what my topic was regardless of whether they knew me well or not. I tried to focus mostly on the small cluster of people in the center of the room in front of me which consisted of my parents, grandmother, my favorite teacher, and my closest friends. After analyzing the audience I had to speak in front of I began mentally reviewing my opening lines, sweeping over my note cards, and taking a few deep breathe to calm the nerves. Subsequently, I looked up to the crowd of eyes staring up at me. I was finally ready to present my hard work to all these people and surprisingly I did not feel nervous at all.