The Speech

On Wednesday night, as some of you already know, I was one of the speakers at the "What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You" event held at our local school. I didn't tell too many people that I was on the schedule until a couple of days prior, and even then, I didn't get terribly loud about it. I was way too terrified!

Speaking was a gargantuan step out of the safety of my comfort zone.  Public speaking is pretty darn close to the top of my list of fears … ranks right up there with vomiting, which I will do anything to avoid – I would rather break my right arm in multiple places!  Truth.

The event’s organizers anticipated about 50 people in attendance.  The school superintendent estimated 250-300 in that auditorium that night!  Of course, I was nervous when I entered the auditorium so I decided to sit in the front row and not turn around to see who was behind me.  I felt the prayers of those that were praying on my behalf (thank you!) and remained relatively calm until I had to speak.

I had edited what I had prepared at least a dozen times over the past couple of weeks and had good intentions of rehearsing some time in the hours prior.  However, the “to-do” list that day kept getting longer and longer with things I had to get done and the rehearsing never happened.  The words I spoke that night were completely raw … the very first time spoken out loud.  It was extremely emotional for me.  Thankfully, I was able to get through it, but when I sat down afterward, the adrenaline overtook me and my entire body shook for a full 15 minutes.  A friend reminded me later what this was and I suddenly remembered “the baby shakes”, as the maternity nurse called them, that I experienced after our son was born.

There were a thousand reasons that I could think of for me not to speak, but at the top of my speech, for my eyes only, I put this quote by Ivanla Vanzant that sums up the reasons why I did:  “It’s important that we share our experiences with other people.  Your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else.  When you tell your story, you free yourself and give other people permission to acknowledge their own story.”  These were my ultimate goals.

There is a raw video of my speech floating around Facebook, but I plan to post the professional when it is available, hopefully next week, for those that are interested in viewing.  Thank you all for your prayers and your support … through the years past, for this specific event, and for the stories that I hope to continue to share.