My First Presentation(TM)

Last week I went to Utah to give my first conference presentation. I was nervous, but also excited. I felt like I had produced a good paper, wisely chosen a conference light on medieval Chinese scholars (or sinologists in general), and even pulled together a Powerpoint (mostly memorized!). But it was a new experience and those are always a bit nerve-racking. I had been told not to sweat it because, as a mere grad student, little was expected, but I was sure I was doing the bare minimum to meet an "acceptable" grade.

So I was really surprised when the first presenter got up and mumbled his way through his paper. He also ran long and had to be chased off the stage. In fact, there were only two presenters--including me--in the two afternoon panels that had Powerpoints. I felt special. Also overly prepared, which is a comforting feeling. Did I mention there were maybe ten people in the audience? Nothing like feeling you're just reading a paper in front of a class to take the stress out of being a presenter for the first time. I was also supposed to be the moderator for my panel but a certain English professor took over that duty.

Overall, it was a good introduction to academic conferences and what presenting entailed. Plus, they treated me to an exceptionally fancy and extraordinarily expensive dinner the night before! How could I complain?