Stage Green Presentation in a Stage Orange Environment

[soos_mite_ah]

I'm mainly posting this to vent and share my experience. 

I'm currently taking a public speaking/ business communication course in college. My college is incredibly stage orange and you will get labelled as a leftist nutcase if people sense that you are even slightly left of center. This class requires me to present a persuasive presentation. Some topics to choose from include persuade the class to invest in a particular stock or investment, persuade people to donate to a nonprofit, sell a novel product idea, or introduce a new way of doing business that will yield to profits. 

Today, I chose violence.  I walked into class at 9 am in the morning in a room full of conservative finance bros and gave a presentation on the importance of workers rights and fair wages/compensation. 

I started my presentation and I immediately saw a bunch of eye rolls and people who were staring me down. I hesitated and messed up in this presentation intro by taking a long pause in the beginning. My mind went blank and I had to recollect my thoughts. I couldn't spell my words out. Then I got in the presentation and everything flowed through well. I did well in the question and answer period but I feel so embarrassed and mortified.

There was a guy who went after I presented who talked about investing in cypto and this man started his presentation talking about how he loved making money and that he doesn't like losing in any aspect of life, whether it be in competition or in investments. He said something along the lines of how he doesn't like to lose and his motivations and stared me tf down. This guy has connections in big oil (I'm talking his dad and brother has high positions in Exxon Mobil), been trading stocks since he was 12 and has 3 million dollars in stock investments.  

I know I probably didn't do too well as far as my grade goes in this presentation. But I am proud of how I got out there and advocated for what I believed in.  There are many times where I chose not to express my opinions and values in the business school because I knew it wasn't going to be well received. Sometimes, this was rooted in knowing that nothing productive will come from picking fights. But sometimes it's rooted in the fear of being labelled as "that" person. "That": person who is idealistic and naive. "That" person who creates awkward political conversations to make people uncomfortable. "That" person who is dogmatic and crazy. 

This was incredibly vulnerable for me and it was nerve wrecking to prepare for. I was walking into a room filled with people who would probably hate me if they got to know me better during a time where politically we are divided and are ready to throw hands at people who disagree. Before this presentation, I have been feeling anxious for the last few days. I threw up earlier this morning because my anxiety gives me stomach issues. I still feel a little jittery while writing this even though it's been an hour since I presented.

I'm just glad that the presentation is over tbh.  I don't even care about the grade any more and I'm just trying to take care of myself and acknowledged that even if I didn't do well, I did get outside of my comfort zone, was vulnerable, and spoke up about something that I really care about despite being in a social position to do otherwise. 

Edited November 9, 2021 by soos_mite_ah

[yetineti]

Proud of you, fuck’em

 

[Rilles]

You have massive integrity! Kudos!

[SonataAllegro]

What school out of curiosity? I’m also at a very orange school (Indiana University) and kind of regret it lol

[soos_mite_ah]

@SonataAllegro I'd rather not get super specific since I want to keep a sense of anonymity but I will say that it's a private university in Texas.

[RendHeaven]

@SonataAllegro Lol my dad wanted me to go to IU, but luckily I didn't.

@soos_mite_ah Bravo~

[Carl-Richard]

Feels bad man. I'm going to a private Christian university in Norway, and our psychology department is Greener than Portland, Oregon on a Friday night. I was allowed to write an assignment on "what role does systems thinking and holism play in community psychology?"  

[Joscha]

@Carl-Richard Damn! Norway all the way 

[soos_mite_ah]

11 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Feels bad man. I'm going to a private Christian university in Norway, and our psychology department is Greener than Portland, Oregon on a Friday night. I was allowed to write an assignment on "what role does systems thinking and holism play in community psychology?"  

How did that go for you? 

And, yeah I wonder how much of a difference going to school in somewhere like Norway would be like compared to where I'm at now lol 

[Carl-Richard]

13 minutes ago, soos_mite_ah said:

How did that go for you? 

I'm still writing it, but I'm almost done and it's going great. My supervisor was really intrigued by it 

[Adodd]

On 11/8/2021 at 1:40 PM, mw711 said:

Proud of you, fuck’em

 

☝

[soos_mite_ah]

Update: It's been a couple days since that incident and I'm also in a group project with the guy who stared me down. I went to this meeting for this group project and acted like nothing happened because I figured that it's only going to be awkward if I made it awkward. 

I don't feel anxious any more but I will say that I'm not looking forward to seeing my grade on this presentation and that I'm concerned about how that will impact things at the end of the semester. I feel kind of stressed tbh. 

[Emotionalmosquito]

On 11/10/2021 at 6:08 PM, soos_mite_ah said:

I went to this meeting for this group project and acted like nothing happened because I figured that it's only going to be awkward if I made it awkward.

So did it work? was it awkward or not??

And man is this story inspiring. What you did is truly something to feel amazing about. Your balls are bigger than mine, that’s for sure.

RESPECT+