LESSONS FROM A STRANGERS •//• Stepping Stones to Confidence

The world is filled with different people with different personalities, I love how the world is filled with diverse people, it allows one to learn from each other. It is quite normal to learn from friends but it is another thing to learn from strangers.

I was never a person who could speak up in public, I mean I could speak well among a group of people or with a person but when it comes to speaking in public, I usually lost my confidence and all that agitate me is the piercing eyes of people who are willing to listen.

Although, I am not someone who will break down and starts crying or someone who will just nervously stare but I was someone whose brain would choose not to coordinate for a lot of reasons, with my disorganised brain I’d lose my confidence and began to say rubbish and I’d kept fighting to hold the nervousness within.

But there is something I learnt from a stranger that has changed and helped me become a better speaker.

There was a day I went to a children school program, I can’t really remember but there they were little children that was way younger than me back then, they were asked to give a little talk about a better world or so but I was that the stranger talked about education.

They were a lot of kids to present their speech, many of them couldn’t complete it, some stood there and cried, some ended their with tears, some had their voices shaking throughout, e.t.c. But they were some who did well, including this stranger.

But this stranger was different from others the few that performed well, she had flaws but she held her confidence. She made several mistakes, but she would get back on track and continue with so much confidence that one wouldn’t even mind her mistakes, she gave gestures, she wasn't rushing things instead she was trying to make us understand every bit of what she was saying.

I felt challenged as I watched this girl speak with such confidence among crowds that she hasn’t met before. I saw other people performed but they were quite perfect like a robot, they spoke too fast and barely make mistakes and I have seen a lot of people like that.

I usually thought people like that are superhuman and talented being but I learnt from this stranger that you don’t have to care what people are thinking about you because it is just a period, you don’t have to be so perfect, little mistakes are allowed but what is not allowed is not brushing up your mistakes, what is not allowed is being afraid to say what you want to.

You take it step by step, every mistake is a steppingstone to improvement. I am grateful to have learnt this from this stranger.