Tongue tied

In High School, once in a while we had a project and we had to stand in front of the class to tell our peers about it. I loved doing so! I loved the preparations, I loved to go to the library (no Internet in those days) to find as much information I could get. And then, the magical moment of speaking in public. I remember getting good grades for those projects and people telling me how well I did.

But nowadays, I'm tongue tied. I no longer like to speak in public, at least not in front of people I hardly know. A couple of years ago, I started to work in the local hospital as a clerk. There were team meetings and the first meeting I attended, the doctor I worked for, asked me to stand in front of the group and introduce myself to the somewhat 40 people present. It was my first week at work and I hardly knew anybody. I was so ashamed and I wanted to fleed. I didn't know what to stay and I started to stumble. My blood sugar dropped and I felt dizzy. I didn't want to tell the group I needed to test my glucose level, so I went on and I thought I was dying.

Many team members asked me questions and I did the best I could to answer them, without making a complete fool of myself. I was so happy when the doctor told me I could go back to my seat.

Colleagues came to congratulate me afterwards, for the good presentation and they said they would have been tongue tied, if they had been asked to do the same. I survived..