I will move ahead bold and confident...

Well, it's Monday night (or Tuesday morning) and in approximately three days I will be presenting my paper on Tolkien's Middle Earth at a theology conference. Let me fill you in on what exactly I'm going to be talking about:

"In this presentation, I will be exploring the idea of hope versus despair. This exploration will take place in the context of Middle Earth, a fantastical land created by Professor J.R.R. Tolkien. In “The Lord of the Rings” there is a group of unlikely companions that are sent to destroy evil. I will be discussing predestination and how it impacts the hope versus despair theme that comes up in Tolkien’s literary works. I will focus primarily on “The Lord of the Rings” and possibly include other books by Tolkien. With this presentation I will have a power point to show the text to the audience, so they can follow along as I discuss."

 Yeah, so that's the gist of it. And I have a lot of work ahead of myself. 


Now, I have had more presentations in the last two weeks then I have had in the last three semesters (not including this one, that math would be impossible). It seems a bit excessive, honestly. Something you need to understand: I don't do well in front of people. I get nervous, my face turns red (or so it feels), and my hands get shaky. It's kind of obvious.


One of my professors commented to me on blackboard, "Nice job! Continue building you speaking confidence. You are INCREDIBLY bright so you need not be timid about presenting." (Gernant) Now, all that emphasis is hers, not mine. I say that because I don't think I would call myself "INCREDIBLY bright" but I must admit that my confidence, when it comes to presenting, is seriously lacking. It's bad.


So, this Friday I get to present in front of a bunch of people I don't know. Yeah, it's going to be great... *heavy sarcasm*


Now, my friend Andrew suggested that I just pick one person out at the conference and "talk" to them. We both agreed that it would be kind of creepy, but that it would probably work. 


Any speaking tips out there?


Praying for the nerves to go away.


"Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have a clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." [Gandalf, The Return of the King]