Hearing the words, “Kehinde you will be among the chairing committee for the delegate assembly”, I felt a mixture of excitement and fear. Excitement because I have been given the opportunity to do something I have never done, a once in a lifetime opportunity and because I was given the opportunity to develop myself in addressing an audience. However, fear because I have never done something like this before and did not want to end up disgracing myself in front of total strangers. Thoughts like “what if I say the wrong word”, “what if I run short of words”, “what if I bore the audience” flooded my mind.

Since there is a first time for everything, I accepted that that was my first time and I had better do it well. Standing on the podium that day to address 175 people, made me feel that it was not such a frightening thing to do.

When it was time for me to do my part, which involved saying a bit about myself and instructing the voting process-which is a crucial part of the delegate assembly, I started with the script I was given. I found it odd speaking about myself from a script and also, I found it difficult to read from the script and look at the audience. As unprofessional as this may sound, I neglected the script and relied on words that flowed to me.

After the voting process was over and it was time to announce the result, I knew I had to make it suspenseful, entertaining and engaging. With no previous skill at doing this, I knew I was in for it. But the audience kind of boosted my morale and encouraged me because they were all attentive and keen on hearing the result. They were all looking at the podium intensely. I knew I had to lighten the mood a bit. Some of the things I did were- After the first drum roll (thank God for the drums) I turned to the drummer and told him to continue the drum roll. The audience got that and laughed. Guess how pleased I was. Telling the audience to guess what the third position was made me engage them and people responded!

My best part of the night was seeing myself announcing the result. Seeing that the audience were laughing and enjoying my work, and not killing the audience with boredom. This is also made me happy as it turned out to be a success.

Evaluating myself at the end of the day, I felt pleased with myself because I knew I did well, but as always, there is room for improvement.

-Kehinde Ibrahim