I was in the theater group in school - and learned a lot about myself there. I broke down crying when playing the Andri in Andorra as it was maybe too near to m

I was in the theater group in school - and learned a lot about myself there. I broke down crying when playing the Andri in Andorra as it was maybe too near to my personal experience being bullied, being the outsider, being seen for something one is not. Being harassed because people just assume. I also did my first presentation (voluntary) in 7th grade on the solar wind (we could chose our topics like "our pet", "my favorite book"). And I did theater group while studying at university as well. I learned to manage my nervousness. But the most important part I learned from theater and presenting from an early age on was that to be really good, to be able to make it look easy, make it look natural, make the audience feel what I feel - to be able to do that, that was hard work. Preparation. Knowing your lines. Working, working, working and also constantly asking for and receiving feedback and adapting. While not loosing your personal take on it out of sight. Not making it generic - staying true to yourself and laying something personal into it. Imho you can only confidently improvise and regularly perform well, if the basics just flow. If you don't need to think about, what comes next. If you can confidently get into that flow. To me - this is what theater taught me: Work hard to make it look easy. This not only applies to public speaking but to a lot of things in life imho.