Purply: My First Speaking Stint

I am a bad public speaker. My heart pounds wildly, my hands and feet get cold and clammy, my voice trembles, and most of all I sweat buckets regardless of the temperature of the place. I am always like this whenever the spotlight is on me – from big weddings to simple meetings – and I hate it.

So when I was told that I had to speak before a group of students about cervical cancer, my stomach churned. Mind you this is not metformin-related. A group of graduating Mass Communication students at St Scholastica’s is eyeing an information-campaign type of thesis, and they are definitely interested in cervical cancer and the need to increase its awareness among students.

If I were their teacher, I’d give them plus points for social impact. Cervical cancer awareness is something really important for all schools to campaign on. So I spent the ENTIRE weekend working on the slides (which I colored purple because purple is CECAP’s color), keeping everything organized based on the outline I made. I decided not to attend Noy’s cousin’s debut party. It’s my first talk, for crying out loud. I even printed two sets of notes – one for me, the other for the slide person, complete with instructions on where to click next because I like using hyperlinks heavily.

The venue was a medium-sized conference room. There were about 70 students – masscom freshies – chatting, texting, staring at the wall and simply uninterested.

I was introduced as being a graduate of UP Manila, and who spent medical internship at Makati Med. I wondered what happened to the fact that I acquired my medical degree from PLM (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila). I certainly don’t remember deleting that from my resume because without it, I never would have been a doctor. Discrimination alert! These people should google PLM once in a while. I mean, I don’t love the school that much, but the quality of education is definitely better than most expensive private schools.

Brushing aside the fact that I was discriminated against by virtue of my being a graduate of school of the dukha, I went on with the talk, chirpy voice and all, not minding the fact that half the room wasn’t paying attention. Then I mentioned the word vagina. Mouths opened. The room fell silent. Eyes wandered in search of approval. Poker-faced, I went on. At this day and age, I believe vagina is a technical term that doesn’t deserve shunning up, because certain issues just would not be clear without mentioning it. For this particular talk of mine, vagina is a technical, necessary term.

When pictures of cervixes came out, the momentum was definitely on. I may have bored them with oncogenes and such, but the picture of a cancerous cervix floored them. By the time I was telling them how not to get cervical cancer, everyone was listening intently. Ah, the power of an image!

I got a lot of questions afterwards, mostly clearing up misconceptions, even when no more purple shirts were up for grabs. The thesis people printed and wore lovely purple shirts for the “event” and gave them away to lucky question-askers. They had equally cute purple landyards like this for everyone too.

My nurses – Ate Let and Leidy – whom I dragged to accompany me, got these, too. I told them later we all should have worn purple!

Apparently Ate Let is not a very good photographer, but here I am in my award moment. I honestly didn’t expect something like this, but it felt good, being recognized as someone with “authority ‘on a particular subject. I’m no ob-gyn, but it doesn’t take one to raise cervical cancer awareness among students.

These are the stuff the students gave me –

I love the coffee cup and how it matches with the planner.

The certificate is so purply, I love it.

I have literally sweated it out, and I’m looking forward for more. I want more purple stuff!

For information on cervical cancer in the Philippines, visit the CECAP website.

And if you have even the slightest curiosity of what and where PLM is, just click that part in this blog entry where I mentioned it.