Through a Mic (Updated)
One of the most humiliating moments of my life was in high school. It's a vivid nightmare I look back on when I think of public speaking. A crowd of my teammates and their families. Two hundred people. I had prepared a speech, but lost my confidence in the words I had written down. Fifteen-year-old me decided the best decision was to throw the paper away and riff. I opened the ceremony with, “I forgot my paper,” followed by “Give it up to the coaches,” and started the applause. I must have given out ten different moments of applause, all the way down to the cheerleaders, who weren’t even present. I was the captain. The leader of the team. I was clutch in big game moments, in front of thousands of people. But I choked during a simple end-of-year banquet speech. In college, I remedied this by taking a public speaking class. Bashing on the injustices of political discourse and failures of the justice system. When I was passionate, I prevailed. I rehearsed. Delivered. When I held frate...