Crown of Beauty Magazine The Brave Issue | Page 61

Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is being willing to face things we must regardless of how much they terrify us.

would display in front of parents, siblings, and friends, a small sample of the things they had learned that year. Naturally, I wasn't too fond of the idea of performing in front of a large crowd of people, much less alone. I had gotten out of such activities the whole school year... but there was no escaping this time.

Being scared of everything is tiring. While it was embarrassing for me to stand in front of my friends and speak, it was even more humiliating to have the stigma that came with being the shy girl who couldn't even read a paper. I felt weak. I felt incapable. And by the end of the year, I was ready to prove myself and everyone else wrong.

With the help of my mother, I spent months working on a humorous speech called “A Triune Tale of Diminutive Swine,” by comedian John Branyan. This speech was far beyond my level of comfort. It took three months for me to work up the courage to recite it to my mother. It took even longer to get it to the point where I was comfortable enough to perform it at the end of the year program.

level of comfort. It took three months for me to work up the courage to recite it to my mother. It took even longer to get it to the point where I was comfortable enough to perform it at the end of the year program. I talked myself out of it so many times. I was terrified. I knew it was possible I was only going to make a greater fool out of myself by putting

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