Finally, Elaine thought, life is back to “normal.”
Well, almost. She realized she was still wearing her face mask as she drove alone in her SUV, halfway between Prairieland Park and her hotel. She pulled the mask off and tossed it onto the passenger seat. She didn’t love wearing masks, but as long as a mask got her back into a farm show after almost two years she was willing to put one on.
Unfortunately, Elaine was distracted by a worry that made her stomach ache. She couldn’t stop thinking about it as she drove across Saskatoon, parked, and entered the hotel lobby. As she made her way to the elevator, her friend Glenda waved at her from the hotel bar. Glenda was at a crowded table with farmers from around the province. Elaine knew most of them, and she was glad to see Glenda, so she changed direction and found an empty chair that she could pull up next to her friend.
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“Ready for tomorrow?” Glenda asked, after Elaine ordered a beer from a passing waiter.
“No,” Elaine said, putting her head in her hands. “I never would’ve worked so hard to get on this commodity board if I’d known I’d have to give a presentation to a room full of people.”
Glenda laughed. “You’ll be fine,” she said. “It won’t be like that presentation you gave when we were in university.”
Elaine sighed. “I hope not.”
If only she’d said “no” when the board chair called her to ask her to speak at the group’s AGM during CropSphere. But he’d dazzled her with flattery.
“We’re lucky to have someone with your passion on this board. You’ve put so much energy into your work,” he’d said. “Everyone at the AGM can learn so much from you.”
Clearly he had a lot of experience getting people to do things.
In the weeks between agreeing to give a presentation and the night before the AGM, Elaine got more nervous every day.
Her husband Jeff tried to calm her down.
“You’ve spent months studying this stuff. You know it inside out.”
“What if I get up to the podium and forget everything I wanted to say?”
“That won’t happen,” Jeff said.
“Oh yeah?” Elaine said. “I haven’t given a presentation since second-year university. And everybody knows how that turned out.”
Jeff hadn’t been in that class, but he’d heard about it.
“That can’t happen twice,” Jeff said.
Elaine was not convinced.
“If you’re going be an effective advocate for agriculture, you’re going to have to get comfortable speaking in public.”
Easy for him to say, Elaine thought. Jeff hadn’t spoken in public since his sixth grade Christmas concert, when the principal had to drag him out behind the stage curtains in the gym to take on his role as one of the three kings. But since Jeff was still sensitive about this, Elaine bit her tongue and kept quiet.
“Write your presentation, then practise it at home,” he said. “I’ll help.”
She took Jeff’s advice, and soon she had her office door closed and was giving the presentation to her filing cabinet.
“Mommy?” seven-year-old Jenny called from the hallway. “Why are you talking to yourself?”
When she was ready to try the presentation in front of Jeff, the kids were happy to help.
“Try starting with a joke,” said 11-year-old Connor. “You could use the one Oscar told on the bus this morning.”
“People would clap if you ended with one of the moves from my dance routine,” Jenny said. “I can teach you.”
Elaine practised her speech so many times between Christmas and the AGM that she was sure she could give it backwards, without notes. But still, she was nervous.
She’d been so tense her hands were sore from gripping the steering wheel during the drive to Saskatoon. She wished Jeff was with her. He loved the crop production show even more than she did. But with Jeff’s parents away in Arizona, they couldn’t leave the dogs alone in the farmyard overnight, especially the German shepherd puppy. And even if their farm employee could manage the dogs, Connor had a hockey game and Jenny wouldn’t want to miss dance practice.
“I’ll go next year,” Jeff had said.
When it was time to clear out of the bar, Elaine took the elevator up to her hotel room and let herself in. Before she got ready for bed, she stood in front of the mirror, looked herself in the eye and gave the presentation one more time.
This version wasn’t perfect. There was slurring in the middle and she missed a key point, but since she’d had a couple of drinks, she thought it was probably okay.
The next morning, she couldn’t eat breakfast. The coffee sloshed in her stomach on the drive to Prairieland Park. At least her presentation was early in the morning, so she could relax for the rest of the day.
Elaine took a seat at the front of the meeting room, but she couldn’t keep her mind on the AGM opening. When the chair pointed at her and everyone stared, Elaine realized she was being introduced as a new board member, so she stood and waved. She had no idea what the first two speakers talked about.
Then it was her turn, and the chair was calling her to the podium.
She made her way to the front, feeling like she was floating.
At the podium, she remembered to lower the microphone, and take a deep breath, the way Jeff had coached her.
And suddenly she was doing it. She was giving the presentation that had terrified her for so long.
Later, when Jeff asked, she said, “I don’t remember looking at the audience. I don’t even remember giving the speech!”
But she did give the speech, and when she finished, she saw the audience clapping and nodding.
A thousand-pound weight lifted off her shoulders.
But then the chair asked if there were any questions.
Elaine panicked. Questions? She hadn’t prepared for that. It hadn’t even occurred to her.
But it turned out she could answer all of the members’ questions. After all the time she’d spent learning about this, the questions were easy. She wasn’t even tongue-tied.
On her way back to her seat from the podium, Elaine walked taller, and felt a new confidence she hadn’t had before. She settled into her seat.
“Great job,” whispered the man in the suit sitting next to her. “That’s great work you’ve been doing.”
Elaine paid close attention to the rest of the meeting, even taking notes.
When the AGM ended and the audience stood to leave, Elaine and the other board members gathered at the front of the room for a quick debrief.
“Great presentation Elaine,” said the chair.
“Sure was,” said the vice-chair. “I thought maybe it might end up like that one you gave in university.”
The chair laughed. “I heard about that!” he said. “It’s legendary. But I didn’t think Elaine would let that happen twice.”
Elaine turned red. Then she thought about how great she’d felt when she finished this presentation and started to laugh.
“I hope you’ll let me speak again next year,” she said.
