On February 20, 2016 I gave a TEDx UTK talk on Dracula and Multilingualism. It was a lot of fun to write, re-write, and memorize this talk. I got really nervous the week before the event, but I survived to tell the story.
The video is being edited and will be available in about one month. Once it gets uploaded to YouTube and the TED website I will let you know.
The night before the event, we rehearsed one more time. With Katie Lou Rogers, the coordinator, who was giving me the latest details.
It was really cool to work with UT students – the kind of young people I did not think existed anymore. They were professional, focused, and gave it their all in putting this event together. The coordinator, Katie Lou Rogers, was really helpful and made me feel at home during the rehearsals and the actual event.
This is the third annual TEDx UTK event and it was held at McClung Museum of Natural History. My husband took the kids to the Muse while I was busy with my TEDx event. They came with me to the first rehearsal and I just could not focus with them in the audience. We decided it was going to be too emotional for me with them in the room.
It surprised me, because I did not know that about myself. I spoke at a couple of local homeschool conferences last summer with my children in the audience and had no problems. But I think this event was slightly different. It was filmed and I was reciting six pages I had learned by heart. I needed to be “in the zone.”
We learn something new about ourselves every day, don’t we? Now that the event is behind me, I feel so relieved. Thank God it went well.
