At last, we have finished our presentation to the renowned ManCom (Management Commitee) last night. After almost having a heart attack due to the nervousness that me and my colleague were feeling because the first scheduled meeting was actually postponed - it was actually the fault of the BigBoss since he missed his flight. Nonetheless, the prolonged agony, I think, was worth it.
We got ready a good 30 minutes before we were scheduled to talk in front of the ManCom. But instead of just waiting, RB and I decided to have dinner first before killing ourselves with monstrous heartbeats. A few more bites before the last bit of meat from our pizza disappears, Ms Pots [not her real name] called us up and instructed us to go immediately to the conference room.
When we entered the door, it wasn't at all shocking, but because of our weird heart rates, we were shocked - they were having dinner! We were asked by BigBoss to go and eat with them. Hmmm, what an honor, right? But we were just too fidgety to eat, so out of politeness' sake (all the other members of the ManCom are at this point, telling us to go get something since BigBoss told us to eat), we got up from our seats and headed towards the desserts. I got myself a cute slice of chocolate cake and a can of Coke. RB took a slice of lasagna and something else. So we ate. It actually took all of us about 40 minutes to finish eating.
After dinner, three more people finished their presentations, details of which are of course confidential and we wouldn't want our ass*s bitten off for divulging company secrets, so let me assure you that what were discussed will not at all spark your interest and let us go directly to our presentation.
As I started I know my voice cracked a bit because I was so nervous I couldn't even feel my fingers. It was a long, long time since I last reported to a group of people you know, it's been quite a while since I left college. So anyway, I blabbered along, conscious that my voice was loud, and I was also aware that I was making eye contact. It's something I developed in college - when speaking in front of a big group I make eye contact to make me relax, opposite of everybody else's idea that you should think that you're talking to chairs to get the nervousness off and instead of the common occurrence that speakers' voices slowly fade into oblivion (except when using microphones), mine is loud- but not annoyingly pitched - and stays relatively stable and loud until I actually finish speaking. And it was a good thing because all the personalities I stared at responded by either nodding their heads or smiling. I was also very much aware that I fumbled with some words, I even had a minor mental blackout when I was thinking for a term that would best describe "set aside". Anyway, that didn't come out good, but it doesn't matter now, does it? BigBoss even interrupted at times to ask the other ManCom members of some inter-related activities that would be of very good use for our nifty little department. And also to agree that what we're planning were all very good, especially after establishing the fact that we can be a little internal business consultation group. He liked that idea. Very much so that he even gushed about it a bit.
So after that he asked me - directly - when the target date is for the start of the formal implementation of the things we presented. I said, some are already working, some are being established, while some are plans just yet. So he said, "[My real name], you should have all these up and running by the 'ber months. Ok?"
'Ber months?! That's just almost one full month away! Can we really do that? By the way, 'ber months mean Septem-ber, Octo-ber, Novem-ber, Decem-ber. In short, BigBoss said, we should have the whole system working by September. Great. This is starting to be very stressful. Challenging. And worth the while.
Good luck. To us.
