Do Something

By:  Ada Z.

         Growing up I had a debilitating fear of speaking in front of people.  If I was called on during class, I would clam up and hardly get any words out.  If I had to stand up in front of the class to give a presentation, I would try to get out of it by pretending I was sick or I would slump down in my chair so I could be the last one to present.  This shyness followed me for most of my life.  Of course, as I got older, I wasn't forced to stand up in front of the class so I did not have to confront those feelings as often.  But even to this day, I will still get sick to my stomach if I am put on the spot.  

        Because of this fear, it was only natural that I get anxious over doing a podcast.  However, it didn't seem as scary since we were recording the episodes and we weren't speaking live.  When we began filming and recording on the first day, we had no idea what we were going to say.  We didn't prepare and we didn't do research.  We just started speaking.

        Coming from someone who has been fearful my entire life, the free-flowing conversation was a shock to me.  I could hardly believe that I was able to speak into a microphone and in front of a camera in a somewhat coherent manner.  

        We filmed three episodes on the first day.  When I watched our videos during the editing process, I felt a sense of confidence that I had never felt before.  I felt as if I was watching myself grow up, right before my eyes.  I didn't feel like that shy little girl anymore, standing frozen up in front of the class.  

        Although we never prepared for our first few episodes (and still to this day we don't), I'm happy that we just did something.  We didn't overthink the process.  We didn't sit on our ideas for weeks and begin to doubt ourselves.  We just did it.  

        Too many times, I had ideas and never followed through with them.  If I had just attempted some of those ideas, who knows what could have come from them.  I now believe, that in life, it's more important to do something rather than nothing at all.  So, as Nike would say, "Just DO it".  

I, Ada (left) & Lisa (right) attempt to get it together during one of our episodes which 

we clearly weren't prepared for.  

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