What with all the hubbub of world-class cellists drinking Harp, I forgot to mention my 15-minute trip into the world of academic presentations at Quest on Wednesday. When the presenter preceding me proceeded, there were only five people in the room (including the speaker, Jamie the student volunteer and me). My nerves wrenched up a notch, as if I needed that. Ever since I learned I was booked in a room that seats 98, I'd been worried about speaking to a near-empty hall, my carefully rehearsed words reverberating like drops of water in an abandoned building.
But a funny thing happened as the history professor continued her account of 13th-century Flanders. Small groups of people shuffed in and took seats. Many were friends and co-workers I had more or less begged to come. By the time she wrapped up her presentation perhaps a shade after 10:30, the crowd looked respectable, at least.
I went up to hook my iBook into the system and thought I heard some clattering and murmuring. When I looked up, I was shocked to see the hall was more than half-full. Maybe 60 people had suddenly gathered like crows on a telephone wire to hear me discuss bits of my thesis on the media and pop-culture roots of the Generation X stereotype.
The audience impressed, humbled and slightly worried me. In the back row sat the executive assistant to the college president (who also supervises our office) and two of our three academic deans. The provost's husband was there as well, and a few professors I knew. I also saw some grad students from classes of at least a year ago, including one who was there when I started my thesis planning.
Perhaps most flattering were the dozens of current undergrads, who listened attentively with some taking notes. Some of them were there because professors often give out extra credit for students who attended and wrote up brief papers on Quest sessions. I thought originally they came through my friend Tina, a public relations professor who had planned to assign extra credit to those attending this session, but she later told me she had been out sick on Tuesday and never had a chance to assign it. I didn't know if any professors assigned my session directly or if these students had to just attend a Quest session and decided mine looked less uninteresting than most. Or if any -- perish the thought -- just came because it sounded like an interesting topic.
The presentation itself had at least one technical hitch. I wanted to play a clip from the film Slacker and a snatch of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (see previous post for why). But as the clip played, the only sound came from my laptop. (In the back of the room, Tina leaned over to my brother and said, Maybe he doesn't know about the volume knob on the podium. I didn't, as my previous run-through focused more on the technical issues.)
But I recovered from it and soldiered on. I mean, I couldn't expect it to go off perfectly, and these things just make presentations more interesting and challenging. The audience kept listening, laughed at my attempts at humor and gave me a nice round of applause at the end. Ultimately that gratifying reception, more than anything else, is what I'll remember most.
| 
!
