I gave a talk yesterday in church. Enough said?
Well, I'll elaborate a little. I guess it started at 10:30 Saturday when I finally finished my talk ;)
Then Job was gone all day on Sunday because he had to play in a concert at Sanders Theater on the Harvard Campus (beautiful concert hall!) He dropped me off about 45 minutes early to my Relief Society Presidency Meeting which gave me time to read through my talk. Then I had a meeting which ended up just being me and the RS president because for different reason the others couldn't come. Anyways, it was a wonderful meeting, and then I asked the president where the best place to catch the subway was outside her place. I was just going to the T to church, but she was way too sweet and said I could just stay there a little longer and she would take me to church. She already does so much and I wrestled with taking over her morning, but I finally decided to accept her offer and forgo waiting in the cold for the subway to come, sitting on the dirty subway for 45 minutes, and then walking in the cold for 10 more. I know, doesn't seem like a hard choice but I really don't like to bug people. But sometimes I have to be humble and accept help. So I got to enjoy lunch with two great friends, her and her husband.
By the time we found parking and got to church we were a tad late and so I had to walk up to the font for my talk. I tried to do this sneakily, but there really is no way to do so. It was obvious, and the look of relief on our bishop's face to see the other half of the program walk in was pretty obvious too ;)
So then I calmed my nerves and listened to the other talk. Great talk. At least the first few minutes were. I quickly realized I desperately had to use the little ladies room and standing up in a state of extreme nervousness with a full bladder was just not going to work out well. But I really couldn't leave right in the middle. That would once again be too obvious. So I waited some more. And I just had to go more. ooh boy. I just bit the bullet and did it. Walked right down there, and got a knowing smile from my friend who knew exactly where I was going since I mentioned my plight right before church started.
After I *ahem* relieved myself, I just waited out in the foyer until the intermediate hymn. A friend came to check on my to make sure I was ok. I didn't consider the fact that me walking out in the middle right before I was to speak looked like I had flown the coop, too nervous to even continue. Great. So half the people were snickering because they knew I had to pee, and the other half were feeling sorry for me because they thought I just couldn't handle the pressure.
I "snuck" back in obviously as the hymn was being sung. Then I stood up to give my talk, just to face the 1nd counselor announcing my talk. Oh, not quite my turn yet. I nonchalantly sat next to the 2nd counselor to ask him when I had to speak. Smooth, nobody noticed that one. I hope. ;)
All-in-all, when it came down the the actual talk, it went pretty well. I was certainly blessed that I got through it, could think quickly and finished exactly on time. I didn't just stare at the paper and read my talk, but really tried to speak from the heart. Though it wasn't perfect, it went better than I expected and my confidence grew. I heard speaking in public gets easier with experience. Let's hope ;)
After once again standing in front of a group to conduct the meeting in relief society I was finally on my way home with some friends. As suspected, they had a hunch my little leaving-in-the-middle stunt was the call of nature. Queen obvious here.
Phew, long day. But good for me.
Oh yeah, my talk was on Humility :) Ironic?.....
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