this past weekend i presented a paper at the Communication and Culture Graduate Student's conference.
i can't remember the last time i was that nervous, the room was filled with friends and colleagues all of whom i have tremendous intellectual respect for. add to that one of canada's tier one CRC's and you can imagine how nervous i was. (she is also on the admissions committee for my PhD... natch.)
the first five minutes of the paper were pretty jumbled, my palms were sweaty, my voice was trembly, it was not so great. once i calmed down and got to an altitude of 35,000 feet everything improved. i'd never presented in front of people i actually cared about before, normally i go to conferences where nobody knows me for that very reason but i have to say the 20 minutes of discussion after my presentation made me feel pretty damn great. i got several compliments on the paper which was nice, my intellectual Moriarty took some great delight in pointing out how nervous i was... sometimes people can be huge bitches.
now back to the grind... will the foucault ever end?