Um.

I spoke at a middle school career day yesterday. I have done this before but for some reason I felt a little unprepared this time. Maybe because instead of reviewing my outline and notes before my talk I drank coffee and chatted with other speakers. Anyway I learned something about myself during my talk. I say "um" way too much! I swear I wanted to slap myself. As I rambled on and on about being a personal chef all I could hear myself say was "um". And the more I tried to stop the more I think I said it. I got to the point where I don't even know if I was saying anything that made any sense at all because my focus was all on my "ums". Thank goodness I made it through the talk without any of the kids actually screaming out "MRS. N, STOP SAYING UM!" It really wouldn't have surprised me in the least.

So later in the day I met up with a friend who teaches a college class and who also spoke at the middle school career day. She told me of the time she counted all the "ums" a college student uttered while giving an oral presentation and how she, as the teacher counted them all. Whew!was I glad she wasn't sitting in on my talk! Well, then she proceeded to take a piece of paper out of her pocket and unfold it. On it were lots of tally marks and then a total. 137. What?!

Her daughter, a middle school student, tallied all HER "ums!"

All I can say is there is no way I said "um" 137 times during my talk!