BIKES=BIG YIKES

I would consider myself a pretty confident and outgoing person, but the journal club presentation made me realize how terrified I actually am with public speaking. I had practiced several times before but it was still nerve-wracking to present on something that was not my own work. I had to understand the paper well to be able to deliver what I think the authors were trying to show in their results. I think this would've been easier if I had as much science knowledge as these authors probably have and was involved in the experiments myself; that way I would know what the data represent, why I did those experiments, and have the background knowledge to cohesively put together a story. However, I was not in the behind-the-scenes so it was harder as an audience member to decipher what their results were and what their main take-away was. This was the biggest part to my nerves -- not being super confident. I think it was terrifying because although I did my best to interpret the data, there was some stuff even I was confused about. The most surprising part of preparing the presentation was how long it took to just dissect the paper content. I had to reread small paragraphs many many times and try to interpret how they made conclusions based on their data. I had a lot of anxiety delivering my presentation so learning how to be more calm is really critical for better presentation. I found putting the slides together to be easier than I thought, but understanding the paper was more difficult. Taking a deep breath and believing that I was prepared and had a concise story to tell helped me deliver my presentation.

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