Julie Helen: 'I want Ricky to know he can give things a go'

Ricky has been going to a Taekwando class for most of his time in junior Infants. It is a Korean martial art that includes high kicks and punches, with sparring and a lot of sequences. It also includes instruction around respecting your opponent and making sure you execute moves in the correct way so nobody gets hurt. At the beginner level, there is a lot of running around, jumping and hopping, and performing drills. It is right up Ricky’s alley, but he was most enamoured with the uniform and the belts.

Last week in school, it was time for “show and tell” where each member of the class could bring an item to school and tell everyone about it.

Ricky said he wanted to bring his scooter, a treasured birthday gift.

He often asks questions about when he’ll be allowed to ride his scooter the three kilometres to school. The answer to this will always be never, but I think bringing the scooter to school seemed like a half way point.

I went along with his plan for a few weeks. Then the communications nerd in me just couldn’t resist so I started probing about what he would say.

I explained how it would be so much easier to show off a skill and talk about it.

At first he looked at me bewildered and David was quietly laughing at my attempts to influence.

This was his first ever presentation, I wanted it to go well. I wanted him to be confident and bolstered and, if I’m really honest, I wanted him to love public speaking as much as I do.

I absolutely love speaking and making presentations, almost as much as I love writing. I having a really stressful trip to Dublin on one occasion, where I had only seconds to spare before presenting to a group. I my colleagues being flabbergasted at how quickly I could get in the zone and just fly. I have always had an aptitude for presenting well and I loved debating too.

I know public speaking is a thing many people shy away from but in our house there was always some event either Mum or Dad were preparing for. I have seen them speaking my whole life and was always a sounding board for practices.

I can still see Dad standing, leaning on a pillar in the school library at my first debating competition. I spoke too fast and didn’t refute enough arguments but it gave us a lot to work with.

He went on to coach our team for the Concern Debating Competition in later years and mum had me grilled both times I participated in the Young Scientist exhibition.

My brothers followed suit and are extremely accomplished speakers too.

Whatever about competition or public performance, what I wanted for Ricky was to know that he doesn’t need to be shy, he can give things a go. Any presentation doesn’t need to be perfect and nobody can see inside your head to see what you had prepared or what you have left out.

I talked to him a good bit about how our brains work when we are trying to facts, and how taking a breath and slowing down can help us feel calm.

We settled on a presentation about Taekwando and I’m sure his instructor Mr Power would have been thrilled to see him showing off his stances. He told them all about the different belts from white to black and everyone got to see his uniform up close.

The teachers told me he did a great job and most importantly he came out of school with a beaming smile.