How did I get here?

[nervousashell]

I’ve recently returned to studying after a very long gap with ill mental health (returned about 10 weeks ago) .

I’m doing a degree that involves working with the public, and have completed placement this semester, and have really, really enjoyed it . My supervisor asked me to talk to uni, and tell them about my placement experiences as she thought they’d appreciate hearing it .

So ... uni did appreciate it ... and now they’ve asked me to present about my experiences in a few days .

Help .

I can talk reasonably confidently to small client groups but this is my peers, and academic staff and I’m quite terrified !

I know uni wouldn’t have asked me to do it if they didn’t think I was capable, but I’ve never been asked to do something like this before .

What if I screw it up? Or make a mistake ? I’m worried classmates will be wondering why they’ve done this too - I don’t want to stand out !!

It’s all over Zoom and screenshare which helps because I’m in my own home, not standing up in front of anyone ... but hells teeth, I’m nervous .

I feel your pain. I hate public speaking.
However I found I was less nervous if it was a subject I knew really well - which if it's your experiences, then obviously you are the expert.
Another thing that helped was, I would picture in my head people coming up to me after my talk and saying well done, thankyou, that was interesting/informative. In that spirit: Thanks notnervousashell, that was a great talk you just gave.
Let us know how you get on.

I’m the wrong person to give advice because I’ve been doing this kind of thing for so long it no longer phases me.

But what I would say is - think of 3 or 4 key points you want to make; keep it simple; practice lots in advance. If you know your stuff (and you do, it’s about your experiences) you’ll be great.

If there is a q&a afterwards “that;s not something we did/covered/that came up” is a perfectly acceptable answer and well worth rehearsing a couple of those.