I’d been decaf for 2 years, so the caffeine hit me immediately.
5 shots of coffee in 5 minutes and my heart was pounding, my mind racing. I felt like I was about to take off.
I headed to the park where I’d marked out a 14 metre-wide stage with two sticks on the grass.
I practiced my speech out loud for the hundredth time.
A neighbour stuck his head out his window to stare at me, to make sure that this guy talking to himself was ok.
A grandmother walking a pram past said to me: “I’ve seen a lot of things in my time, but I’ve never seen this.”
She had a point.
I was trying to replicate what it might feel like to speak at the Brisbane Grammar School Speech Day in two days’ time.
8 months earlier, I’d been invited to speak about a lesson from my experience that might resonate with the boys.
The nerves kicked off straight away.
There were layers to this one.
I’m a former student.
There are 5 generations of my family tied up with the school.
There would be 1800 people – school boys (including my nephews), teachers and parents – in the QPAC Concert Hall and more watching online.
It would be the largest audience I’d ever spoken to from the biggest stage.
And I wanted to make this one count.
In the end I chose to run a short breath work activity and then to share a story from my journey to the Athens Olympics.
It’s a story from a time when I was overwhelmed by doubt, when self-belief had vanished and when I wondered if I would ever be good enough to make the Australian team.
Every time I tell it I’m reminded of how a tiny act kindness inspired me through to Athens.
And every time I tell it I’m reminded of my responsibility to take that and pay it forward.
Because that tiny act of kindness changed my life and I know that we can do the same for others.
This is the first time I’ve been professionally filmed telling this story – I hope you enjoy it.
