Recently, during one of our sessions we were asked to put ourselves outside our comfort zone and speak in front of a group of 30 people, in an effort to enhance our public speaking skills. I found this particular activity/exercise incredible impactful. Our topic of conversation was “what we are passionate about” this was a question that meant different things to different people. I believe that our passions are very varied and it was very interesting to hear about what the people in my particular group were passionate about.
These topics varied from speeches about gender equality, to speeches about making speeches itself. Through this exercise I believe we as potential peace makers got a feel of what it will actually be like on the day, we were able to practice and strengthen our confidence in front of groups of people. In this case we were quite lucky because we were asked to speak in front of people we already know however, during the IFP conferences we will not be given that luxury of speaking confidently in front of people we know.
When I first started speaking I was quite nervous and very much looking forward to finishing the task off but, as I spoke more and more I got more and more confident in myself and what I was saying. My voice slowly started to stop shaking. This was the case for a lot of the people who came up to speak, upon starting off they were nervous and unsure of what they were saying but, as time went on they started to find their train of thought and were able to get the message they intended to get across, across. For further improvement of this very challenging yet rewarding activity I hope to have more time to present as I noticed that a minute was too little time for many of us to deliver the message we intended to deliver.