December 20th, 2013 | Uncategorized
Today was an incredible day. I am currently in Oman, visiting my Grandma who has been living here for the past seven years. Upon my arrival, my Grandma asked me to give a 20-minute talk at Oman Medical College (as she is the Dean of the school) about the importance of sports and exercise to some of the students.
The last thing I thought I would be doing voluntarily is giving a presentation because I wholeheartedly despise public speaking. The closer it came to the day I would present, the more I was dreading it. My stomach was doing some sort of gymnastics routine the morning of the presentation but to my surprise, as the excited Omani students filed in to the room, my nerves slowly slipped away.
My grandma gave me an introduction and all the students enthusiastically clapped and cheered before I even started the lecture. Normally I have to remind myself to breath, focus on controlling my voice so it doesn’t shake, but not this time. In a room full of over 70 students, I talked about sports, my role as a Victory Scholar, the fulfilling effect that exercise has on our body and the need to exercise for health reasons.
It was an amazing feeling to realize that I actually enjoyed speaking to the young students. Dozens of girls after the presentation shyly asked to take a photo with me, saying that I was their ‘role model’. But those weren’t the most rewarding things about the presentation: it was when I heard students go to my Grandma asking when they would finish building the athletic complex on campus because they want to exercise. To realize that what we are doing as a Victory Scholar is truly helping to inspire young people around the world to change their lives, that was the most rewarding part.
