We all have one thing, always, in our way stopping us from completing our goal or what we want to do, because we are afraid. We call this fear. No matter what it is, everybody has it and  trust me it’s hard to overcome. In 3rd grade I was forced to go against my fear. Speaking or talking in front of people, because I was afraid of failure and judgement, like how people laughed when I stuttered in Elementary school. But sooner or later I would have to face it. This was the moment where I had to cross paths with my worst enemy.

My teacher, Mrs. Bhatnagar had assigned everyone to do a speech on anything you would like. It was due on Friday, but the only word I heard was speech and my heart slowly sank until my head laid on the desk. I felt like I was alright with writing, but presenting was a whole different story. All I wanted to was to sit alone in the back row minding my own business. To stay invisible. At the day of the presentation, my teacher was picking names randomly out of a knitted hat, that looked like the fur on the back of a kitten. I was praying that I won’t get picked and I crossed my fingers until they were sore.

“The first one up is…. Trudie.” she called. I was about to drop dead, but I had to do it. My legs were shivering as I walked up to the front of the classroom wiping my sweaty hands on my floral skirt, looking at the chipped paint mark in the corner, noticing that happy face sticker slowly peeling itself off from the white board, and hoping that everything would go well. I stood there on the rugged flooring, stiff as a rock. In the awkward silence, there was only me and my thoughts jumbling all inside my head, thinking about all the circumstances that could happen.

“What if I mess up?! What if no one likes my speech?!” I wondered. I was so worried I couldn't speak, like last night clump of chicken was stuck in my throat. It felt like my voice was being push downward into my stomach, and that my shoulders were heavy, like a bunch of flour sacks were slowly crushing me. All of my classmates  watched at me with a look, that makes you feel you did something wrong, and my teacher standing in the corner wearing her blue blazer, with her clipboard judging me with her stares piercing straight towards me.

” You can start now, you know”, she said. With each eye contact I made with my classmates I felt that I was being slightly stabbed in the the back of my throat with a toothpick. All of the adrenaline rushed into my head and I felt like I was going to puke.

“Come on for pete sakes! You got this. You got this.” I encouraged to myself. “I.. uh..I..I”, I stuttered and for a second my eyes began to fill with tears until I thought to myself, that the only thing that I can do now is suck it up and face it or else I won’t get anywhere. I decide to do the best that I could,so I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, stood up straight, and swallowed my gut. It was now or never. I spoke with as much confidence as I could. I might have looked like a wet dog with sweat rolling down my cheeks, but I kept going no matter what Never stopping until my speech was complete. I felt like I was running five miles straight because I was out of breath.  After I was done, I lifted up my head and smiled, because I was proud that I was able to face my fear. I know it is hard, but I learned that you can’t make a difference, if you don’t take action.