challenge

THE STORY YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR....

The challenge I overcame

The challenge I faced was to climb the Mount Everest and sing in front of a million people. Frightening, right? But I'm just joking!! But it's something almost similar to the challenge I really faced.

My real challenge was to overcome my "stage fright". I have always been opening able to speak to my friends and family. And I am also capable of proving my point or giving a speech. I am, as my friends say (and it's definitely not me blowing my own horn), very outgoing and friendly. But I have a HUGE problem. I cannot speak in front of strangers and that too a 'huge crowd' of strangers. When I was younger, I had many chances to show-off my talents but I was too afraid to step up to take the opportunity. I guess I could blame it on my low self-esteem and non-existent self-confidence.

Then, as though world had decided it had had enough of my cowering it threw an opportunity in my face, literally (my friend threw the poster on my face!). It was a poster, saying they are having auditions for the school yoga competition choir. Normally, I would have been too shy to go for it. But I don't know why I just decided that since it's a choir with a lot of people, my voice wouldn't be heard. I still am very happy I took that daring step. It changed my life. They made us sing a few musical notes, individually. To say I was nervous would have been an understatement. I was literally shivering in fear. When my turn came, I swallowed my breakfast that was threatening to come out and sang the notes. And to my surprise, they said that I was selected. I was overjoyed. And the practice for the competition began. Then in a few weeks I had another opportunity thrown right in my face. (But this time, it's just an expression). The yoga competition conductors said that to enter the competition, we need a "commentator" for the yoga poses. And guess who my teacher suggested in a blink of an eye? Me, good ole me.

I was asked to leave the choir to practice on the commentating. My teachers worked very hard to perfect my speech and me, of course. And worked hard too, I had to miss many classes but in the end it was completely worth it. I, slowing yet steading, started getting over my stage fright. My school got qualified for the next level but sadly I wasn't. They only chose specific students. But I didn't let that get to me. But this incident spread my name. People started to acknowledge my talents.

This competition was what paved way to a life changing incident. The inter-school extempore speech competition. In my class, there only four people who can speak proper English. Me, TL, Ram and Jeyaram. TL and I were always good in English. Jeyaram was born in Canada, so, it kind of obviously that he's good in English. And as for Ram, he only speaks in English, well, most of the time. So, we were the only options, but only three were allowed to enter from each school.

Ram and TL were confirmed. So, it was a duel between Jeyaram and me. Let's just say, we both were always the last ones to get a job done and have a very contending relationship. I hated losing to Jeyaram and I wanted this more than anything. So I worked hard and won against him. So, it was just me, Ram and TL for the inter-school extempore speech competition. We all worked really hard. We read my speeches and lectures. And teacher gave us a topic to say on the spot.

After a lot of practice and bloodshed, the day of the competition arrived. I was prepared for anything but I was still not over my stage fright. I was very frightened and nervous. We arrived at the venue and we settled down. After an hour of refreshments, they gave us our topics. I got a really interesting topic. My topic was 'India in the year 2020'. I was the last one to go up stage. Before me, a lot of people from other school spoke. There had been a very funny incident that had occurred. A boy from another school got the topic named 'invisible for a day' had thought invisible meant the incapability to see. The judges told him to go over the topic again and come. Though that incident was funny, it only frightened me more. Ram had finished before me. And I was ranting to him about how nervous and scared I was. I think his words had calmed me down a bit. He told me, "Calm down and take deep breaths. Drink some water. And don't worry. You'll do great." It calmed down but I was still nervous. And finally, my turn came. My legs were shaking and I was feelling cold from fear, I thought I would pass out! But I didn't. When I spoke, I could hear my voice shaking. And teacher was sitting in front of me in the audience with a poker face. I was so afraid that I started giving funny examples. She still had the same poker face on. I finally finished. They said that they would announce the result in five minutes. I sighed in relief that it was over. As we all waited patiently, my teacher came and said that we all did a good job.

They finally announced the results. Our school won both first and second prize. There was no third prize. They called TL on stage for second prize saying that her speech was very inspiring. I was so sure that Ram had won first prize. So, you could imagine the surprise, when they called my name for first prize!! They said that I was the only one who maintained the time limit and the rest talked too little.

I was really happy that I took part in the yoga competition because that was what got me this far and I got over my stage fright. Even though, not completely, I'm still trying my best and I'm taking every opportunity that God throws my way.