Nervous

I am very nervous. I will be giving a presentation at 2:00pm this afternoon and I am a nervous wreck at 7:00am. The presentation deck hasn't been done yet. That's not why I am nervous though. I can throw the PowerPoint together in a couple of hours. It's the progress report I'll be sharing that makes me nervous. That and public speaking. I always start out well and then my voice gets shaky towards the middle when I realize who I am talking to. I start to wonder if these people take me seriously. I am younger than all of them. It is either the age gap or the fact that I am the only black person in the room. I sometimes feel that they don't take me seriously and that affects my confidence believe it or not. However, today, my problem is the fact that I know people will get on the defensive when I share their progress reports with others. They will probably start to question the source and then shoot the messenger - me. Oh well, man must chop. I'd better start thinking of a way to break the news delicately to those that didn't do so well.