Comfort Zone

Last week was all about pushing myself out of my comfort zone.  I will be the first to admit I am a quiet person and much rather be in the background instead of out in front of everyone.  One of my goals this year is to push myself out of the background.  So I asked an Athletic Director if I could put show a slideshow of athletes competing before the upcoming Winter Sports banquets.  While this meant I could kind of stay in the background, my images were shown on a big screen and I could hear the reaction of the athletes and their families.  I also tried to mingle a little but I know that I should have worked harder at that.  One more banquet to go so hopefully I can be more outgoing at that one.

The second big thing I did was agree to speak to Freshmen High School students for Career Day.  Me, in a classroom with students, speaking for 30-40 minutes.  Pure terror for me but I did it.  I am hoping to receive feedback from the students, because that would be helpful for me.  The experience really was worth all the preparation and lack of sleep.  I woke up around 3:15am on Career Day.  I laid there thinking about all the things I was going to talk about.  Wondering if anyone would ask questions and what to do if they didn’t.  Was I allowed to run from the room?  Could I just tell them to talk amongst themselves and then go hide in a corner?  Luckily for me, I had some great students.  As far as I could tell nobody fell asleep so I was not totally boring.  It was an exhausting event for me.  I spoke to four classes of students and I was mentally and physically drained by the end.  Heading home I replayed the classes in my head and wondered what I could have done better.  I stumbled through making some coffee when I got back hoping to get a little energy to get some more work done.  Not sure how many times I replayed parts of the classes in my head the rest of the day but it was a lot.  Realized where I could have made things more interesting and things I probably could have just left out.  I guess I will know how well I did if they invite me back for next year.  I know I am better for the experience and hopefully I inspired at least one person to be a photographer.