Quiet (2012)
“Nature, Nurture, and the Orchid Hypothesis Some people are more certain of everything than I am of anything.
—ROBERT RUBIN, In an Uncertain World ALMOST TEN YEARS AGO It’s 2:00 a.m., I can’t sleep, and I want to die.
I’m not normally the suicidal type, but this is the night before a big speech, and my mind races with horrifying what-if propositions. What if my mouth dries up and I can’t get any words out? What if I bore the audience? What if I throw up onstage?
My boyfriend (now my husband), Ke...n, watches me toss and turn. He’s bewildered by my distress. A former UN peacekeeper, he once was ambushed in Somalia, yet I don’t think he felt as scared then as I do now.
“Try to think of happy things,” he says, caressing my forehead.
I stare at the ceiling, tears welling. What happy things? Who could be happy in a world of podiums and microphones?
“There are a billion people in China who don’t give a rat’s ass about your speech,” Ken offers sympathetically.
This helps, for approximately five seconds.MoreLess
—ROBERT RUBIN, In an Uncertain World ALMOST TEN YEARS AGO It’s 2:00 a.m., I can’t sleep, and I want to die.
I’m not normally the suicidal type, but this is the night before a big speech, and my mind races with horrifying what-if propositions. What if my mouth dries up and I can’t get any words out? What if I bore the audience? What if I throw up onstage?
My boyfriend (now my husband), Ke...n, watches me toss and turn. He’s bewildered by my distress. A former UN peacekeeper, he once was ambushed in Somalia, yet I don’t think he felt as scared then as I do now.
“Try to think of happy things,” he says, caressing my forehead.
I stare at the ceiling, tears welling. What happy things? Who could be happy in a world of podiums and microphones?
“There are a billion people in China who don’t give a rat’s ass about your speech,” Ken offers sympathetically.
This helps, for approximately five seconds.MoreLess
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