Two woots!

[timelovesahero]

First woot is the short one. My friends and girlfriend's family have all noticed my weightloss (180 down to 167ish) and commented positively on it.

Second woot is a tad longer. First some backstory. I hate public speaking. While I am a confident fella normally, in front of a crowd larger than 6 people I just get incredibly nervous. And if I know I have to speak in front of a crowd, the anticipation and terror builds inside of me until I start forgetting what I want to say. (Also, even with small groups I forget the most basic of words and often will say "I want a red fruit thing" when I forgot the word "apple").

I am also in law school and decided this summer to take an internship as a public defender. Since I am a rising 3rd year law student, I get to actually appear in court, giving cross examinations, closing statements, etc. I.E. I will be speaking in front of judges, juries, attorneys, and more. No only that, what I will say can affect my client's chance for freedom. This is a terrifying idea. In my mind, I by no right should be doing this and I have friends who agree with this sentiment.

Last week, my law school had a mandatory, week-long program to teach us how to conduct a trial. There we did all sorts of exercises like conduct direct and cross examinations, give opening and closing statements, learn how to enter exhibits into evidence, and conduct two trials. Everything we are doing is so far outside my comfort zone and it doesn't help that my summer boss (and many other practicing attorneys) are there to observe and coach.

So color me surprised when I learn that I am the shit at being a trial lawyer. I did struggle at first in my direct and cross examination exercises, however I was making some progress until everything clicked on day 3: the day we first gave our opening statements. That day, at 8:30 in the morning, each student was to stand up and give the minute-long theme to their opening statement in front of about 30 other students and 10 attorneys. I learned that I was to go second behind a female student who most consider to be the best at trial-work among the 30 students. Her statement rocked and I realized what I had prepared the night before would pale in comparison. So in the 10 seconds it took to get up out of my seat and walk to the front of the room I made a new theme and gave it. The response from the teacher attorneys was fantastic: "Great! That could be the whole thing, you don't need anymore. Great job!" Later that day we gave our full opening statements (roughly 10 minutes long) and I gave my reworked statement with new theme. Again my critique was largely all-praise and it was so amazing: "Of all the students I've heard today, you have the best command of the facts" and "Some people got what it takes to be a trial-attorney and some people don't. You've got it." From that day forward, except for one exercise involving kids, I was one of the best students and doing this trial-stuff and got considerable praise from the practicing attorneys.

Oh, and remember that female student who most considered to be the best in our group at conducting a trial? Well, I went up against her for my trial. And I won. I was the better attorney that day and even succeeded with strategic uses of objections to rattle and throw her off game.

Black text on a white screen cannot adequately show how elated I am in all this, how confident I am now. I cannot wait to start work.

(the tl:dr version of the second woot is: I hate publicly speaking and feared I'd make a horrible trial lawyer, and learned I am actually one of the best at conducting a trial in a very good law school)

[materfortis]

Woot! Awesome for you! I can so relate to the fear of public speaking-what a wonderful dragon to slay!

[BeckyBuckeye]

Woot! Congrats, that's awesome!

[murphmehard]

That's totally badass! Congrats!

[Eddard]

This is supremely w00t-worthy.

[tigersheart]

excellent work!

[maegs]

Wow, that's awesome!!

If you want more practice at public speaking you might want to check out Toastmasters and see if there's one near you. I'm not in it, but my mom is, and it's made a huge difference for her.

[Maledictus]

Congratulations

[DChristian]

That is incredibly awesome!