Sometimes S**T Happens

Stressnya jadi baby. Tido, minum susu, main, repeat.

Kita merancang Tuhan menentukan ye dok uols?

So sometimes shit happens no matter how well you planned things.

A very big part of my job is to speak in front of people, be it for trainings or public talk.

Ramai orang tanya macam mana iols boleh cool, selamba je berdiri depan orang ramai dan bercakap.

Luaran saja nampak cool tetapi sebenarnya nervous tetap ada. Iols je tak tunjuk dan sembunyikan di bawah mekap 10 inci. 

What if I forgot what I wanted to say? What if people think I'm crap? What if this and that?

Berdiri di atas pentas bukanlah sesuatu yang menakutkan untuk iols. Sejak dari zaman sekolah hinggalah ke zaman uni, iols sering berada di atas pentas. Favourite iols adalah ketika mewakili kolej kediaman untuk Festival Seni.

That feeling of being on stage and dancing. It's undescribable. Those were my sweetest memory of being in Uni.

Well anyway, if people ask me how do I keep cool before being on stage or being in public, is not to overthink and just do it.

Overthinking ruins things.

But that's not to say I don't overthink.

Nak dijadikan cerita, Ahad lepas iols ada talk kat satu fitness event ni. 

Untuk talk ni, iols dah sediakan powerpoint presentation semua, dah siap buat slide cantik-cantik, dah rehearsal semua dah pun.

Di hari kejadian, iols bangun sebelum alarm berbunyi. Sebenarnya iols pun tak berapa lena tidur malam tu. Asyik resah gelisah tak tau kenapa.

Tengah bergolek-golek tunggu alarm berbunyi tu, tiba-tiba iols terfikir

" Oh shit. What if they don't have projector? What if nobody turns up?" 

Iols bukak saja phone, dapat mesej daripada organizer yang bertanya samada iols perlukan plug point atas pentas. 

"Wait. Do you provide projector as well?"

"oops. We don't have a projector"

OH SHIT MAN.

S1: No Projector

It turns out ada miscommunication on both parts. Tapi logik la kan uols, selalunya kalau orang buat talk mestilah organizer akan sediakan projector. 
Bukannya iols nak berucap. Kalau berucap memang tak pakai projector la kan.

So kelam kabut la kitorang carik projector merata tempat. 

Iols tanya sesiapa saja yang iols rasa berkemungkinan besar mempunyai projector.

My friend has one and he lives in Bangi, it's already 10.30am and I need to be in Subang by 12pm.

Sempat ke ni nak pegi Bangi kemudian rush pegi Subang?

Nasib baik belum sempat iols keluar rumah, organizer bagitau yang diorang dapat jumpa projector TAPIIIIIII diorang takde white screen/wall untuk project.

Ada pentas tapi mestilah pentas ada banner dengan tulisan semua. Event tu pulak di tempat yang terbuka dan sangat cerah.

So kalau ada projector dan screen pun pointless sebab tempat tu silau.

Maka iols kelam kabut lah lagi bertanyakan teammates solution WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?!!??

"Maybe we can print the slides and distribute?" 

"No no. The images we use could be subjected to copyright."

"Ask them if they have white screen, white board we can project on"

"it's okay. We'll see what we can do"

It turns out 90% of our audience are teenagers. it was a fitness event and no one inform us that most of the participants are teenagers.

S2: Target audience

The contents that we prepared is for active adults. Sudahlah takde projector, content pulak dah tak sesuai.

Ini memang boleh mengundang sakit kepala. Otak I dah jam.

Macam mana ni uols, takkan nak cancel?

iols terus brainstorm dengan teammate macam mana nak handle disaster ni.

Shit happens and the show must go on. Abandoned all the slides and everything we have prepared, just go with the flow and did our best.

At one point, I run out of things to say but I was lucky my teammates were very helpful, gave hints and ideas on what I should talk about. 

One trick about talks is people don't want to hear you talk all the time. They want to be involved as well so you can always ask them to share their opinions or experience. Kah! Jimat air liur mak. 

In the end, despite all the challenges, we did it. Phewwww. Lesson learnt.