Appearing Before the City Council

The eight ILC students who attend Hercules High presented themselves to the Hercules City Council today. We all had to introduce ourselves and give a brief speech about the ILC program and its significance to us and the community. Prior to the our introductions, there was presentation regarding the rails and train projects along the city's coast. It was quite lengthy and many of us weren't too interested in this matter, but I guess it was good hearing about something that mattered to our city which we weren't too familiar with. After that, Mr. Ramsey made a few introductory comments about the ILC program and called us forward.

Everyone's speeches were very good and insightful. They were all fluid and confident. I, unfortunately, was the last in line to speak and was feeling some pressure to perform as well as everyone before me. I prepared a speech earlier that day but I felt that it wasn't enough, so I tried improvising a little. It worked a little, but I started to stumble towards the end. It was quite unbearable for me, even for a second, to stand there for a second to try to regather my train of thought, for I even forgot to breathe after briefly forgetting what I was going to say. I hope I didn't make too much of a fool out of myself. After the presentations, Don, naturally, gathered the students and the council members together for another photo shoot. Appearing before the city council and making a speech was quite and experience for me. Although I didn't speak as well as I'd have liked, I hope I can use this experience to improve my public speaking in the future.