Prompt: Describe a time when you had to speak in front of an audience. What were your fears? How did you handle them? What advice would you give to someone struggling with stage fright?

     The largest audience I've had to speak in front of was during elementary school spelling bees. The first fears of speaking in front of an audience arose during these moments in school. The first spelling bee I participated in was the hardest for me to participate in because of my lack of speech during this time. I was in speech therapy class throughout elementary school that aimed to resolve my refusal to speak. This further added on to my anxieties that I had when I was on stage in front of students and parents. To this day, I regret what I did to handle my stage fright at that moment, because I've realised over the years that it was the worst action i could've done. I decided to purposely misspell the word I was given, which was "ballet." I just wanted to get the spelling bee over while getting off stage during the process. In retrospect, I should've just spelt "ballet" correctly because it would've been less embarrassing to get the word right and continue the spelling bee until I eventually did get a word wrong that was reasonable to misspell. I would advise people struggling with stage fright to be yourself in front of an audience and don't take the easy way out to avoid being on stage.