pg 76~78 first draft / 200800759 Ju Yeon Kim

The English Presentation Contest        Most people would have an experience of mouth becoming dry and head turning blank. It's one of those moments that anyone want to avoid or erase it inside our head. I also had this moment when I was in middle school which now I think of it, became a stepping stone at being a brave and confident woman.        In middle school, during the english time, I was dozing off in the front row. The english time in my middle school was very boring because our teacher kept saying the same thing over and over again. After saying the same thing quiet a few time he made an announcement that there would be an English presentation contest among all our middle school students and he will accept volunteers for it. No one raised their hands and he randomly picked two person in our class, me and my friend. I was so surprised that I practically jumped out of my chair and told the teacher that I can't possible do that, it would be such a hard challenge for me to speak in front of the whole students. The English teacher who gave me a corky smile left the class saying that he believes that it would be such a wonderful experience for me, which would last a lifetime. After being chosen for that English presentation contest me and my friend spent almost hours and hours after class preparing for it. We had to choose the topic, write at least 5 minute long essay about it, and the most hard part, memorize all of it. Moreover, we had to overcome the feeling of fainting in front of the whole school which was not easy at all. We constantly went over to the gym on top of our school where the contest would be held, took a deep breath and had pre-presentation practice. Finally, after over a week of preparing and practicing the day for the presentation had came. The whole contestants were ten including us, and two students were paired up for the presentation. Each pair had to pick papers inside the black bag which numbers were written, to choose who would go first, second, third and etc. With my trembling hand I picked up a paper and prayed that we would be the last one, which as me and my friend unfold the paper, number "1" sprang upon our eyes. We were bewildered but there was no time, we were first to go. We heard a loud round of applause and the red curtains went up, revealing two students whose faces were white and smiling very awkwardly. We did our presentation, about the pop culture of Korea almost for 8 minutes. We kept forgetting our lines and messing up which part to say and not which made our presentation long and dull. Even though, at that time, I tried to not make any eye contacts with people below us, I could sense that they were whispering and making dull faces saying silently toward us, 'When are you guys going to wrap it up?'. My mouth became very dry that I had to smack my lips quiet often and my head became blank just like a white sheet of paper. When our presentation finally ended, my friend and I almost flew downstairs from the stage and went straight toward the bathroom, so embarrassed by ourselves.        At that time when I was a middle school student that experience was the most horrible thing I want to forget about it completely. However, as times passes by, I found out due to that experience I gained more confident and courage at making presentation in front of people. Even though I am not really a type of person who has talent at giving a presentation, that experience really toughened me up. These day I regard myself as lucky to be chosen randomly for that contest, and believe that the experience of giving a presentation in front of the whole school really became a stepping stone for me to become a braver and confidential person.