Like a virgin

All throughout my academic career, I have never given a lecture. Sure, there have been presentations, but never lectures. For me, a lecture is leading a class, and a presentation is more like delivering a speech. There is a fine line in the differences, but they are different nonetheless. To me, a lecture is like a presentation on steroids.

So here I am with less than a week to prepare. The opportunity was sprung up on me only a few days ago so I have to scramble to meet my deadline. I do not want to disclose the topic since I might have the [mis]fortune of having a student that will be in the lecture who reads my blog. But I will let you know that I will be lecturing at the place where I went to graduate school.

A big fear now is that the students will know more than me and I will look like a blundering ass. Another one is that they can smell fear and are not overtly sympathetic. These fears and others are compounded since I am not an expert on the topic and will be researching everything to put something together.

Extra money is nice, but I don’t know if it is worth the stress and anxiety. I have fragile nerves.