I hate public speaking.
No matter how many meetings I lead or presentations I give, I'll never be a fan of standing at the front of a room. I'm good as long as I'm in a chair, but the second I get on my feet my hands start to shake. If I’m particularly stressed out I’ll hear the shaking sound in my voice
whether or not anyone else in the room notices.
Standing up in front of a crowd is definitely not something I volunteer for. So when the local JDRF chapter asked me to serve on an adult
discussion panel at their annual Type One Nation Summit last weekend, naturally I said…yes.
Why? Don’t get me
wrong, a large part of my brain twitched first at reading the request and again at
the realization that accepting was the only good answer. But I’ve had multiple conversations with JDRF
employees about my disappointment that many JDRF events seem to be attended
primarily by parents of T1s and by very few adults who actually live with this
disease. Finding out that over 100
adults had already registered for a panel with other adults was incredible news
and I couldn’t say no. The plan was for
a few of us to share our stories and hope that having this opportunity to be together
would trigger discussion.
Going into the day, I had a picture in my head of what a “panel”
would look like. We’d sit calmly at a
table in front of a room and would never have to stand up to address our
audience. There would certainly not be a
microphone present. My hopes were dashed
pretty quickly when I saw the room. We
had chairs, but no table to hide behind.
There was a podium centering those chairs, with a microphone stand
directly in front of that. Uh oh…
I survived. My hands
shook every time I accepted the microphone handed to me, my voice stayed calm,
I spoke about my own experiences and choices with T1D, got at least one laugh
from the room, and didn’t burst into tears or curl up into a ball in the corner. The four of us at the front of the room
covered a wide range of ages, time since diagnosis, and ways for approaching
life with Type 1. Questions in the room included
topics about diet, exercise, support systems, needs from loved ones and more. The big take away for me was that I’m definitely not the
only one – T1D adults wonder how other T1 adults manage this disease, even if I
don’t see them out and about at events.
If I’m able to help that conversation happen more frequently, I’m in and
want to help.
My second take away was this:
I’m really proud of myself for what I did last week.
It wasn’t a huge commitment and
required no prep other than showing up, but it was an experience I would have
said no to in a heartbeat not so long ago.
I’m proud of myself for saying yes, and I’m proud of myself for actively
participating and sharing my story in front of 100 people with a microphone in
hand.
I didn’t see any of this coming,
but it worked and without question I’d do it again.
On a side note:
because it always happens to me, I often notice when another speaker’s
hands are shaking. In the session right after
the panel, an endocrinologist from Yale spoke about advancements in T1
technology. Though I would have loved to
hear much more detailed information in her presentation, she spoke well. Her hands were shaking.
Second note:
one of the questions to the panel was whether anyone on
the panel followed a low carb diet, and I was the only person to say yes.
In spite of my typical diet, I joked near the
end that my friend and I might be going for pizza after the Summit…so after explaining how well I do by managing Type 1 with low carb, a picture
of lunch is below. I think I earned the indulgence.