Page 12 - FS-Scaredy Cat

Carmen stood there for a few moments and then let out a weak little raspy screech. Much to my surprise, no one laughed or rolled their eyes. Carlo smiled again and said, “Pretty good but lets do it a little louder and longer.” Once again I could tell Carmen was scared. She was afraid that her singing would be not good enough and that others would make fun of her. Carmen was scared that she would be embarrassed.
I know that you know what I am talking about. We all make ourselves sacred of things that are really not dangerous or incredibly important. The really interesting thing is that our fear makes us perform more poorly at any task. So if you are scared about reading out loud, your reading out loud will be worse than if you just told yourself, “This is no big deal so lets just do it.”
Well, Carmen must have told herself one or more of those things because the next thing I knew she was letting out the loudest cat screech I had ever heard. In fact, her screech got two dogs next door to start barking and running in circles.
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