That kid who brought bread to journal club

I have never understood why people try to picture a naked audience before giving a presentation. For me, I like to relax myself by telling a corny joke and providing treats to my audience. Surprise surprise! That's exactly what I did. Although I feel comfortable presenting to my classmates and teachers, I always get a little nervous before any presentation. Bringing a loaf of sourdough to my presentation and telling a corny joke about it definitely eased my nerves a little. Thankfully, the audience laughed, or else it would have been really awkward.

In terms of the presentation itself, I found that the most difficult part of it was finding an overall application to my project. Knowing more about bacteria that live in sourdough bread is pretty cool, but so what? I spent hours just to think of further applications to the findings of the research. In the end, I was still very vague about what benefits the research can provide to the world. The thing that surprised me the most was how often I would say "ugh" or "um" between each sentence. I didn't realize this until I met with Atissa to go over my presentation. I must have said "um" at least 50 times during the whole presentation. It was frustrating to watch. I think that I could have rehearsed more, so that I wouldn't have to pause between each sentence. It wasn't easy to find time to rehearse because of the design project due the day before my presentation, but no excuses here!

Overall, I had a great time presenting the research article I read. The thing I feared the most was the Q&A session after my presentation; I thought the teaching staff would just completely grill me with questions. However, they asked questions that I was mostly able to answer (except for certain methods- I need to familiarize myself more with the methods section). The whole audience was also just very respectful in giving me their full attention and asking me questions that weren't too hard (thank god). Maybe next time, I will present research on Pumpernickel....