Why public speaking is important?

      You can be smart, super smart, genius, have a lot of opinion and arguments in your head.
      But if your audience or the person you are talking to can't understand what are you saying.
      It's like a case for old Nokia phone.
      It's damn useless.

      That's what my mid-school teacher said to me when I first joined anti-drugs campaign. It's about 3 years ago, when I was practicing my public speaking. I was a very shy girl, actually (you wont believe it anyway, so). For example, when I was first joining student orientation days back in the mid-school, I was very quiet because my elementary school that was in same mid-school as I was, they were on different classes, so basically, I was a stranger. I didn't start to talk with someone, until somebody starts talking to me. That's why I actually a very shy girl (or maybe just anti-social, you decide). Okay, back in the case, that anti-drugs campaign has 3 qualifications. First one was like exam, there are sheets with questions about drugs and HIV so I need to learn it first. Second qualification was public speaking to the judges, that was only indoor, and the judges was just 7 people. Last qualification, was public speaking in front of judges too, BUT OUTDOOR, AND WATCHED BY MANY PEOPLE! That was horrible by just imagining it (back then), I was about to give up, but my teacher didn't give up on me. He said, I have this inner public speaking skills, and I need to keep practicing. He said, I have a good charisma and confident that can persuade people. It's even scarier to imagine I can be an SPG (Sales Promotion Girl), because of my skill, but naudzubillah anyway. But, short story, I won the 5th place, over more than 100 students that joined the qualifications, included 4 of my partners. Since that day, I realize that public speaking is soooooo important.
      I was the second vice of student organization (OSIS) in my mid-school, leading a meeting it's a basic thing but to really......tell your opinion or arguments in front of many people, isn't that easy. Okay, over talk about my mid-school story, now in my high school. I was joining English debate competition few months ago, and that.......was where your opposite could kill your confident even your self-esteem in just a minute by their arguments. I've been practicing debate for about 3 weeks (to prepare the competition), and the last week was very intensive practice. And when I got into the battle zone........dang, my confident decreased by 99%, and the 1% was just my selfish-self. Regardless to the situation about confident, I need to get into the motion. I need to know what is really happening out there, and how I respond to it, as if I was a government or as if I was the society (affirmative team). I need to know the plus and minus of the situation that happening based on the motion, so, I can't just arranged it, it must based on the real event. The other thing, because it was an ENGLISH debate competition, my English needs to be good and fluent when I express my arguments. Actually I can just use daily language, but I need to be......scientific, to show that I am a genius, lol, kidding. I mean, that was a formal event, so, it's better to use standard language or even scientific language.
      So, here's why public speaking is so important, especially for those are you that in high school, or just graduated.

      First, it's increasing your confident. It's automatic, you need confident to speak in front of people. In this case of confident, not only the brave to show yourself in front of people, but also control your emotion. If you're nervous or even shaking, you could lose all the things in your head for just a blink. That's why, you need to be calm, even if you feel scared of what people think about you when you are telling your thought, or you scared of what people think about how you look, how you dress (because that happened to me, that still happens anyway, til this second), you need to take a deep breathe and relax. This is the real kind of confident, it's to control yourself, and to place yourself in right situation.
      Second, it forces you to think fast and critically. Except if you're performing written speech, you can look at your notes anytime, but when you're performing debate or unwritten speech, it forces you to think "what are your next words?" , "what are you going to say?" , "are your words or thought is relevant?" and how you respond to your opposite? do you get the meaning of what your opposite is telling? That's so important. Sometimes you have a lot of things in your head but can't make it into words (well, me), then you need to look for the solution. You are a dynamic people in this very fast era, you need to act fast and think critically.
      Third, it makes you feel comfortable in socialize. After you get your confident, you know how to place yourself in some kind of situation, then you can always bring yourself in new place without feeling weird. You can make friends, you can be an easy-going person, you can be friendly. Some people are just too shy or too nerd to socialize, or maybe there are few people that just.......really not into 'socializing', but no, I know as human being, we can be individual and social, but of course sometimes you need help from other people for some kind of business. You can be judged as selfish if you're not socializing, so that's why (I studied science-social ((IIS (Ilmu-ilmu sosial)), so I know those kind of thing).
      Maybe if you just read my article, you wont believe it. You need to prove it by yourself. You know? I get the idea of writing this title is from some people in my new class. So the story is, I'm on 11th grade now, and the class was being reshuffled by some kind of irrational-rational reasons. Even the science-social classes has been signing a disagreement contract and gave it to the principal, but still, our voice are minority. In my new class, there are some kind people that really shy, really loud, really bossy, and really normal, I am the normal one (no kidding). So, I had this little research about it, and it made me wanted to write this one, no judge. My point is, at my age (16 and over) if there are people who didn't have that much confident as I write above, they NEED to look for the solution. Because it's just......simply important, for your life. I really don't know what words could describe how important it is, daamn.
      So people, embrace yourself. Don't worry about what people think about you, if you have enough confident, and you know how to deal with it, you kill it! Be yourself, being hated for your truly self is better than being loved for the person you are not. So stay true, stay real, don't be fake, but be mature.
      Peace out!