Journal Entry #2: Nothing Beats A Cup Of Tea, On-Air

This photo of WAU Restaurant & Cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor

My First Time on a Podcast: Teh Tarik Sundays by @zord189 @branlee87, and @teammalaysia

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Courtesy of @zord189

0756hrs,100718

It felt like a dream. I wish I had the time to write this earlier. The whole experience was so unreal that I'm forgetting details about it right now. I'm babbling. Sorry. Let's go through this chronologically.

What's Teh Tarik Sundays?

Teh Tarik Sundays is a weekly podcast on the #teammalaysia Discord server hosted by @zord189 and @branlee87 with support from #teammalaysia witness @bitrocker2020. Teh Tarik Sundays is an initiative to create a place for the #teammalaysia community to discover new creators and provide creators new and old to promote themselves. The name comes from the popular Malaysian drink, "teh tarik", which is commonly served in local Indian "mamak" restaurants. As such, Teh Tarik Sundays is a casual place for #teammalaysia to get together and socialize. It happens in a voice channel where only hosts, @zord189 and @branlee87, and their guests are allowed to speak with questions and discussions with an audience in a separate text chat channel. The podcast is also hosted on #dlive at the same time.

I first heard about Teh Tarik Sundays from @alvinauh when I joined Steemit back in May 2018. Then, I had to admit I wasn't really interested(sorry @zord189 :) ). However, after a few months on Steemit, I realised the good that it brings to the community, especially after I see how they helped to boost the creators who came on the show. It became a dream for me to guest on Teh Tarik Sundays. Days and months passed and I started to think that maybe I will never be on the show after all. Unbeknownst to me, my posts have attracted some attention from the #teammalaysia community and was even featured and resteemed by other creators. While writing my June 5th post, @alvinauh suggested to bring up my name to the attention of the hosts. Unexpectedly, I got the seat and even better, I'm on the first slot.

How I PANICKED Prepared

I freaked out big time. I was dazed for quite a long time after I got in contact with @zord189 to get his confirmation. It was a little bit funny o think about it now. If you have read my early posts, I am a socially awkward person who is just coming out of his proverbial shell. Sure, as a teacher trainee, I am trained to speak to a large audience. But, an online audience in realtime? That's something I can tell you for sure we are not trained for. I started counting down days to the podcast, which was going to go live on June 8th, 2200hrs Malaysian Standard Time. My unprepared self did not know what to prepare and only thought of preparing a script an hour before the podcast. Thank God I don't have to use that script in the end.

D-Day

When the clock strikes 10, all of my body's fight-or-flight system decided to activate. Cold sweats, the heavy feeling in your stomach? All that, at the same time. It also didn't help that I would be the first guess to speak that night. However, when I looked at the warm welcome in the chat channel and with words of assurance and a few mood-setting jokes by the hosts; it all goes away. For a moment there, I can physically feel the warmth. I could swear that the whole thing took just more than a minute but when I looked at the time when I finished my corner, forty minutes had gone by. The whole ordeal was very eventful for me. I started off on a bad foot buy managing to disconnect myself instead of unmuting my mic(cringe). I also think that my speech was at times too disconnected at times where I was lost for words. It took me a few minutes to finally warm up my chitchat engine and by the end of the podcast, I must have sound like a grandma who have too much too say 😅. The hosts were nice, the audience was really engaging and the support gave me a very much needed positivity boost. Thanks, #teammalaysia ! After my turn, there were 3 more guests on the show, fellow first-time-on-air club member @zamifara and veterans @alvinauh and @legendchew. I enjoyed listening to these people talk and made sure to participate in their Q&A session. Be sure to check them out! You won't regret it with these insightful people.

The Afterglow

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to #teammalaysia, hosts @zord189 and @branlee87, @alvinauh and everyone who tuned in to the podcast for your support and for believing in me. The positive energy I got from you has helped me a lot and inspired me to do much more. I promise to bring more great content to Steemit and contribute more to the community itself. This experience had been very precious and no doubt a tale to tell to my future students. Once again, thank you and thanks again for reading! #teammalaysia BOLEH!!!

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