Peace Out Journal Club

There it was, the #1 spot to present today was still open despite me being the 4th person to choose. Do I present first? Do I step out of my comfort zone and present first?

Only those close to me know this, but I am terrible at presenting. I get nervous easily, causing me to become flustered and lose my train of thought. There have been times I get so paralyzed about presenting that I spent days, sometimes even weeks, dwelling on what could have gone better.

And while I always feel as if I did horrible, I always lose the sense that we are all human. We all make mistakes. While I may interpret something as the worst presentation of my life, it probably just seemed average to anybody else.

Going into journal club presentations, I really tried to focus on that type of mindset. I acknowledged that everyone is human and everything will be fine. As I was called to choose my spot to present, my heart rate was surprisingly calm, and I said, eh, why not, and snagged that first spot.

The old me (and by old, I mean yesterday) probably would have avoided the first spot at all costs. But for some reason I felt a sense of bravery today. And while my presentation was not stellar by any means, I was proud of myself for getting all the way through, plus or minus a few key points here and there, without a formal script memorized.

I also found it interesting that my article focused on rapamycin, something we focused on heavily in the last module. It allowed me to not go in completely blindsided when reading it, giving me a sense of confidence in what was happening in the paper.

Nevertheless, I am glad that's over with! Time to focus on that super delightful research article.

-Sarah

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