Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Confidence and Self-Esteem

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I'll admit it: I've always had low self-esteem. I've always been shy, quiet, and doubtful of my own abilities. That's why I was horrible at presentations in elementary school. Absolutely horrible. I was too quiet, and I stumbled over words a lot. And yes, I used to read entire presentations.

I honestly tried not to, but it didn't work. Somehow my eyes would find their way back to the sheet of paper I was holding in front of me.

Somehow, I grew out of that (presentation-wise, anyway); somewhere between grade 8 and grade 10, I started to be more confident in my presenting skills, and obtained good marks for my projects...

...which is why I was absolutely devastated last semester when I got 75% in both presentations we had to do in biology. Grade 12 biology was a course of many firsts: my first time getting below a final mark of 88% in the course; my first time getting less than an 80% on a presentation; and my first time crying at school.

What went wrong? Apparently, I stumbled over words, was quiet, and read most of my presentation. Sound familiar?

That's why I was shocked when I heard that my team came in 5th place at the provincial level for DECA (a business competition)... which meant that we had the chance to go to the international competition (ICDC).

After that, I gained some more self-confidence... 5th place is pretty darn good for only half an hour of practice the night before. :)



Do you have issues with confidence? If so, how do you deal with them?




 

4 comments so far.

  1. Kaylee on February 16, 2010 at 7:38 PM

    Congratulations!! Good luck with the International Competition :D

    I had a pretty big blow to my confidence this year when my physics teacher continuously gave me 75 on my presentations. Even though I always made eye contact, etc... I don't know if I've recovered yet. All my other teachers like my presentations, so I don't know if the problem is with me or him. :P

    I guess I deal with it by trying to remind myself of everything I CAN do, and how awesome I am.

  2. Manda on February 18, 2010 at 10:50 AM

    I've always been fairly confident, but I think I have an issue with speaking up in class. I never had this problem in high school as I went to a really small school, but in college there is a tendency for people to talk and talk and talk and talk to sound super impressive but they end up sounding dumb. That irritates me to no end, so I just sit and observe instead.

  3. Britney on February 18, 2010 at 1:45 PM

    I've always struggled with my self esteem, but I just tell myself that for everyone who thinks bad things about me, there are 100 others who would love everything about me.

  4. Enzo on February 20, 2010 at 5:34 AM

    Congratulations! Good luck in ICDC.

    I've never had troubles with self-esteem. My parents taught me to be confident (even though sometimes, my confidence is way beyond my means). :P

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