I gave a speech earlier today. Well, I suppose now it was technically yesterday. Although I was pleased with the content of the speech, I gave what was probably the worst delivery of my young speaking career.

You see, the speech was really last minute, and I didn't have time learn the points I wanted to make. Therefore, I had notes with me (actually, the entire speech written out—this is not usually recommended by professional speakers) that I had to use, but because I was so unfamiliar with mny speech, I found myself looking at my written remarks too much.

To add insult to injury, I started choking up early on during the speech, and the tears in my eyes caused me difficulty making eye contact with the audience and difficulty reading my notes. I ended up basically starting down at my notes and viritually just reading my speech. The entire time I knew how poor my delivery was, and all I wanted was it to end as quickly as possible. I think that caused me to speech more quickly as well. In the very least, I wasn't reall nervous at all, just frustrated with myself as I was delivering my remarks.

It ended well though, for after I concluded, I received a standing ovation. That was nice, but I was a little to frustrated with myself to enjoy such a nice display by my audience.