This piece describes my experience with public speaking.
Reflection: I wrote this piece because of my experience with public speaking. I really disliked it when I was younger, and as I go through life, I start to accept the fact that public speaking is necessary. Therefore, I describe speaking in a speech festival in this piece of writing.
Failure is inevitable, especially as a teenager who is constantly going through trial and error in life. It is through these failures that we learn to become better versions of ourselves. Public speaking has never been my forte. Being the introvert I am, it is extremely difficult for me to speak in front of an audience full of piercing eyes. I always felt uncomfortable and reserved to speak aloud. It was not until that time when my mother forced me to participate in a speech competition that my perception towards public speaking and facing obstacles in general transformed.
After a sleepless night, I woke up in sweat with my heart thumping in my chest. The thought of the speech festival only made my heart race with dread. Even with hours of practice and preparation secured under my belt, I still felt hesitant whether I was ready for the big day. It was extremely nerve-racking for me to get out of bed that morning. Nonetheless, my mother dragged me all the way to the venue. The wait was 10 minutes long, which felt like an eternity. I had butterflies fluttering in my stomach, and my head was spinning. I couldn’t breathe properly as I was getting more nervous by the second. The moment my name was called, I thought I was going to pass out. Fortunately, I managed to gather myself to face my nightmare.
I was a nervous wreck on stage. The words came tumbling out of my mouth with no emotion and intonation at all. I sounded robotic and stiff; I certainly did not impress anybody. The judge took a quick glance at my face and looked back down on the marking sheet. At that moment, I abruptly stopped as my head was spinning, I thought that I was about to fall to the ground. The auditorium was filled with an awkward silence. The judge looked up and smiled at me. It warmed my heart that instance, and I picked up from where I left off and continued on with my performance. It was when I got back to my seat that I realized I managed to complete the entire performance. Despite the fact that it was not in one piece, I pulled it together in the end.
Through this experience, I learned that the end result is honestly not as important as the process, because failure is part of the process and we should learn from it. Furthermore, continue to try and you can be certain that you will be able to master it in the future.
Jacob's College Writing Blog 
This essay is pretty amusing to read. As I read through it, it reminded me of how I used to be afraid of public speaking as well. I like the descriptive phrases and words that were used in this essay (it really emphasized the realness of the situation). Overall, I think that this is an excellent piece of writing and I hope that you have gotten over this fear!
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I love your use of imagery and how you show us what happened that day rather than just telling us. Though I’m sitting securely in a chair, reading your essay made me feel as if I was right their on stage, shaking and panicking, staring into the face of the judges. I especially enjoyed the part of your story where the judge smiled at you and it encouraged you to carry on, to me it also represents the people in life who encourage us despite our failures and who are the reason we keep pushing on.
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