Recently my friend Eric proposed an\u00a0idea\u00a0to his circle\u00a0of friends in the interest of deepening our knowledge of each other\u00a0beyond our shared history and current situations of jobs and family.\u00a0Would we be interested to\u00a0gather\u00a0one evening and to\u00a0trade\u00a010-minute\u00a0talks about a topic we each find deeply interesting,\u00a0TED-talk style?<\/p>\n
Inspired by Shonda Rhimes’ memoir, Year of Yes<\/em>,\u00a0I immediately said “Yes”, even though I felt uncomfortable with the idea. Now that some weeks have passed, though, dread creeps upon me. Because even more frightening than the idea of public speaking\u00a0is the thought,\u00a0What if I have nothing interesting to say<\/em>?<\/p>\n When I\u00a0strip away the small talk of weather and real estate, and the funny\/aggravating\/worrying shenanigans of my\u00a0kids, what do I have to say for myself? We already avoid talking too specifically about our jobs and careers; the amount of information and context to describe what many of us actually do has been too difficult to convey in years of late when babies and toddlers have interrupted many a conversation. I doubt anyone really wants me to get into the ins and outs of my current work. So, what\u00a0do\u00a0I find fascinating and funny and thought-provoking in my solitude, to bring forward to others to examine and judge in the cold glare of the theatre light? That this type of conversation is rare and uncommon\u00a0in this group makes it feel all so risky to lay bare my deep interests.<\/p>\n Worse of all would be to\u00a0commit the sin of being boring, ponderous, and\u00a0self-important. Choosing the right topic to speak about\u00a0is of the utmost importance.\u00a0Ugh, talk about putting pressure on myself! As I see it, I have a few options to choose from:<\/p>\n Hopefully one of these will be interesting for my friends. At the very least, I should prepare myself by re-watching this highly\u00a0instructional video from CBC’s This is That! \n