I Wasn’t Ready. I Did It Anyway.

The night before DSE Famzilla, a family event where employees and their families come together to celebrate, I told my brother, “I don’t know if I can do this.”

I had signed up to be an emcee. Voluntarily. But as the day got closer, reality hit. Harsha, my co-host and a fellow Cisconian, was a seasoned emcee. I was a first-time host, just two months into my first job, fresh out of college, and someone who lives with social anxiety — the hyper-aware kind, where the outside world feels loud and my heart beats fast. I was up the night before figuring out what to wear, as if the right outfit could somehow make me feel ready. My brother said, “You will do it. You can.” I held onto those words and went to sleep.

The next morning was a different kind of chaos — I was entirely in my head. How many people will come? Will I go blank on stage? Will the questions I ask even land?

The day before, Harsha and I worked on the script together, going through everything, line by…