A-100 Week Four Recap

Post by J

Week Four.  Oh, Week Four.

This week was all about public speaking and keeping your composure in difficult circumstances. We had lengthy workshops on how to deliver a speech and how to maintain our equilibrium when being peppered (okay, perhaps "lambasted" is a better word) with difficult questions from a hostile audience.

I'm not really thrown by speaking in front of a group; I've done it a lot. If I know my subject and I've come prepared, I'm just fine. We were given a few days' notice to decide on a relevant topic specific to our cone (mine is consular) and develop a five-minute speech. I delivered mine on Thursday afternoon and was given feedback by 10 of my colleagues. I'll now revise and practice, and deliver the speech again on Monday. Done and done. No problem.

I'm not a big fan of extemporaneous speaking, however. I like to know what to expect. Unfortunately, the whole idea behind this week's exercise, "Composure under Fire" or "Grace under Pressure" is to practice reacting appropriately when you don't know what's coming. What is the appropriate response to a very difficult question regarding U.S. foreign policy, especially when the foreign audience is surly and in your face, for example? Perhaps they should have called this session, "Deer-in-the-Headlights in the Face of an Oncoming Mack Truck."

This situation is something for which you can't really prepare, and the Myers-Briggs ISFJ in me hates that. You just have to breathe and focus. Easier said than done.

Before I had my turn in the hot seat, I promised myself that if things really went south I'd just mentally go to my happy place and weather the storm. I sat there at the beginning of the day thinking, "Well, it's not likely that I'll be called on first. My name is not first alphabetically, nor is that of my assigned country. I won't volunteer to go first. I'm not sitting in a place in the room that looks like a reasonable starting place. I'll observe the first few classmates and learn from their experiences."

"Hmm," said the session leader as we settled into our seats at 8:30 this morning. "Let's start with...," and he named my country.  Seriously?

When push came to shove, though, I didn't have time to go to my happy place. But I didn't really need to, either, because - hallelujah, thank-ya-Jesus - I was able to hold my own against the barrage of questions. And it was actually a blessing that I went first, because my class hadn't yet settled into its role as a belligerent, critical, anti-American crowd. Sure, their questions were tough, but not as tough as they could have been. The whole experience cost me a lot of mental energy, though, even if I'm able to retain something that I can use in the future.

Yes, I made it through. But I'm glad Week Four is over and I never have to see its annoying face again.