Provincial Banquet Presentation

Well it has come and gone, my presentation at the Alberta Girl Guides Provincial Banquet and overall I think it went quite well. I have never been too nervous about doing presentations, but I was for this one because the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta was attending and commenting on my presentation afterwards. I was lucky enough to sit to the right of His Honour at the dinner and he was very kind to me and was interested in my experiences at the Forum as well as what I am studying in school, other activities I do etc. I was very honoured to have the opportunity to speak to him and spread my message to the Guiding members at the event as well as the special guests. The dinner was good and as we got to dessert I was starting to get a little bit nervous, what if I forgot a page of my speech? what if my computer doesn't work? what if I sneeze? All of these questions were running through my head as they often do before I give a speech or presentation, but I just opened my mouth and began speaking. All was well for the first little bit but I felt like I was out of breath, stuttering, and looked like a nervous wreck. The sound of the video wasn't the greatest and I hope that everyone was able to hear it. I don't think that I went over my time limit so that was good and I think overall the presentation went quite smoothly. My funny parts were funny outside of my head and I didn't sound like the teacher in Charlie Brown. When I finished everyone clapped and I felt incredibly special when His Honour stood up and pulled my chair out for me before I sat down.
After the evening had finished I was quite surprised that so many people came to talk to me about my presentation and tell me that I did a good job. Apparently I made some people cry! I was not expecting that at all, I thought I sounded like a mess but I guess I was composed. The moment that effected me the most was when our provincial commissioner showed me a piece of paper that she wrote on while I was speaking that said "Future Chief Commissioner." The Chief Commissioner is the head of Girl Guides of Canada so I was very touched by this idea. I know that I will probably end up as some sort of commissioner when I am older, but I don't know if I would be able to do something that huge! I suppose only time will tell, but I feel very blessed that people are listening to message from the Forum and beyond and I am even more confident that I can make a difference.

I have a few exciting events happening this week that I will blog about later so check back soon!
Thanks for listening,
Shannon