Ryan Prins' Blog

As I stood in front of the class time seemed to move too slow. The second hand on the clock looked as if it was slowing down to spite me and cause more anxiety. Then, the hands struck 9:30am and it was time to begin.

When the time came to present our system proposal to our class something came over me. This usually happens when I present, but today I knew that I had it. What I had was this feeling of extreme calmness, relaxation, and knowledge that things were going to work out better than imagined. Yes, I was relaxed and calm. I knew what I was about to do and I was confident in the material that we were presenting.

As the presentation went on I was beginning to lose that calmness when I was watching the time tick by and seeing the slides falling behind what we had practiced. This was making my mind do a 180 and I did not need that before I was about to present our system recommendation.

However, right as I was about to go on to present our recommendation, everything just went right out of me. I was not nervous, worried, or afraid to begin my section. I knew that it was solid and that it would go off flawlessly. As my slides began to pass I was realizing that time, once again, began to move slower and slower.

Once my section was completed relief was what I felt, if only for a little bit. It was at the end of the presentation that the floor was opened up for Q & A. This was the most nerve racking part of the presentation. You never know what is going to be asked and you have to learn to deflect, reflect, and reply. We did this well. Questions were answered, albeit I did not answer many of them, exactly how they should have been. The questions from the professor were going to make me nervous. When he did begin to ask questions he kept grilling us on an alternative that we did not recommend. It was tough to keep fighting for our recommendation, but we did it, and we did it well.

Once all was said and done he seemed pleased. This was a good sign for me since I have been worried about this class for the past couple weeks and this day for the past week. Then to have him come up at the end of class and say, “Your client will be proud. You addressed all of the issues that you found and covered them well.” This just blew me away. There was more of what he said to me than just that, all of which was congnatulotry. I felt proud to do such a “good” job in his eyes and it was reflected in the morale and expressions of our group members as well. I think they were just as proud as I was at that moment. But, hearing those comments from the professor was something that I did not expect at all. Especially from him after the way he grilled us in the Q & A. I was extremely shaky about our presentation, but the comments from my peers, especially from the professor, went a long way to ease the shaking that I had.

It is all over now and it is out of my hands. We did the best work that we could have done in the amount of time that was allowed. I can only hope that he sees it the same way.

I am proud of what we did as a group. The main things that I will take away from this class won’t be what my grade is or isn’t (this would be nice, however not critical), but the process throughout the quarter to get a product our client in a manner that they will be able to use it to make improvements and decisions on.

Finally, it is time to finally relax, if only for a moment.

Current Feeling: Relaxation
What’s Next? History Places & 310 Paper