"Garden of Gethsemane"

I'd be presenting my dissertation in a conference on Tuesday (17th July). Even though I was used to doing presentation for my company previously, having a new topic and going into uncharted territories always give me the jitters.

Presentation in Japan, August 2006

I could still remember August last year in Japan when I did my presentation in Japanese, in front of the public, it was completely scary. I almost died from stage fright! I could still remember we took like 2 weeks to rehearse a presentation of only a few minutes; almost to the point of memorising the script! It did boost our confidence a little but not until we were told that the public was also invited to attend and throw questions at us. It was held in a convention centre, so there's no way we could predict where those questions would come from and what they were. Anyway, heaps of preparation and a modicum of luck, I went through those frightening moments without any hiccups. In fact, all of us attested that we were more confident speaking the language after coming out of the presentation. What else could be scarier?!...(I love challenges actually). So, the Japanese way of doing things has it upside too! Polish to perfection.

This time, it would be something similar. Only thing that I'd be doing it in English, much easier, so there'd be a language advantage there. It would be in the Engineering Department, also open to the public. However, I can't help but notice the stark difference between Japan and here. In Japan, it was "regimented" rehearsals after rehearsals! Perfectionist Japan! Here, there is so much freedom and liberty that everything is on our own. Rehearsals are self-initiated and if we don't give a hood about it, no one will! It's an "I, me and myself" kinda thing. I like it in some way because there's this great sense of responsibility and basically, we take charge of our own destiny! Initiatives to rehearse come from us, no one will need to tell us that.


So, I took the initiative to rehearse my presentation with a few other colleagues who also needed feedback about their performances. I felt it was an extremely inspiring process to make our own initiatives, to realise about complacency, our own shortcomings in the presentation and a will to accept judgement and correct the shortcomings. This process has made me realise that the means to improving ourselves, is not through the multiple rehearsals but a true sense of humility.