You’re tapping your foot on vinyl flooring

The sound echos in the silent classroom

Not wanting to cause any attention, the nervous tick stops

You look around

People seem relaxed, not nervous at the task at hand

The thought of presenting in front of the class makes you stress even more

It doesn’t seem like a big deal

Soon, eyes will notice your every action, ears hearing the shake of your voice

“This isn’t a big deal”, runs through your mind

“Everyone has to do this”

But the moment leading up to it is the part you always dread

You know that after it’s over, you’ll realize you were being nervous for nothing

But still…

Then it’s your turn

You stand up

Your heart’s beating fast that you don’t know if you have one anymore

You notice how the classroom got quiet

You present as you’re supposed to

And while you’re up here, mind as well give it your all

And then

The moment passed quickly as you knew it would

Sitting back down

You feel accomplished

With a clearer head you look around again

You see that you weren’t the only one

People who haven’t presented yet replay what you felt moments ago

What was there to be nervous for?

They look at you as if they envy how easy you made it seem

Oh, how they were wrong.