It was Fall Kickoff, and I was up on stage hyping people and introducing the band playing, and I was in my comfort zone and having a good time, but it was not always like that for me. There was a point in time when, if I were up on that stage, I would have frozen with fear.

Before I was into public speaking, I was someone who, when I had to speak, felt like it was the end of the world, and it was scary. When I was in the summer of 6th grade, I decided to do debate camp and learned what it was like to be wrong in front of people (they don’t care). I learned that you should just trust your gut when talking to people who are going to be seated in front of you, fact-checking you. During this experience, I was doing 3 rounds of debate, and I even won just because I believed and trusted myself when speaking.

From this, I learned so many valuable lessons and so many important traits. I learned how to be confident when talking to people and making up information. I learned what it is like and how to pitch yourself to others and accept rejection, but still be confident. From this, I’m willing to always go up in front of crowds and join many different clubs related to speaking: Debate, Model United Nations, Model Congress, Civic Leaders of America, and Distributive Education Clubs of America. Also, at BBYO conventions, whenever I get the chance to take a leadership role and be able to talk, I take it and use it and have a great time with it.

From this, in the BBYO community, I made a lot of friends because I learned how to keep in touch with people well, and I know how to self-advocate for what I want at conventions. This has also been beneficial outside of school. I have been able to make connections and create a bigger comfort zone for myself and many more opportunities that I enjoyed, like lobbying on Capitol Hill and giving updates on things I am passionate about at town hall meetings.

This has taught me that stepping outside of my comfort zone and making a small change in my life, or trying something new, could end up being one of the best things. Now, I have one thing I want everyone to try after reading this. Try to give a speech in front of a large audience, join something new, or pitch your goal; as long as you believe in yourself, you can do great things.