Forget spiders or flying, what scares Americans most is speaking in front of others. Public speaking ranks as the top fear, according to Washington Post. The sudden discomfort and stress that comes from talking in front of your peers and co-workers can make you believe that you are just not meant to be a public speaker, according to Dawn Kozlicki, public speaking teacher.

“The first time I can remember public speaking was when I was in 8th grade and we had to write a series of poems for English class. And the teacher made us share them in front of everyone. I remember being petrified as I walked up to the front of the class to share what I wrote. When I was up there, I just kind of mumbled everything as fast and quietly as I could, so I could just sit back down in my seat,” Hannah Butler, senior, said.

Butler’s fear is not unusual. 74 percent of people rank public speaking as a stressful or scary situation, according to StatisticBrain.com.

“I think that everyone has had that certain incident where they realized they weren’t good at public speaking, where it doesn’t come naturally to them,” Shannon Eichwald, speech and acting team coach said, “And that leads some people to think that they are not made for public speaking.”

Public speaking is associated with social anxiety, where instead of being shy and nervous, you purposefully avoid sitations in life where you might be embarassed, according to HelpGuide.org.

“[Stressing from public speaking] comes from daily life and how we interact with different people. And when we don’t get a response that we want based on what we said, the fear starts to build,” Laura Stanton, speech and acting team coach, said.

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, can start at any age, where a certain experience can traumatize you and leave you afraid to speak again in front of others, according to Eichwald. Dwelling on that fear can make the fear bigger.

“Being afraid of public speaking made me a more shy person. During class I would be afraid to talk to anyone or answer questions, even if I knew the right answer. I was afraid of everyone in the class paying attention to me,” Butler said.

Butler was afraid to talk to people, and that made it hard to make friends. The fear would be the most intense when trying to talk to people. It made speaking to a group really jittery and awkward, she said.

“Every time I got up in front of a group, my hands would start to sweat and my voice would drop down like a man’s. I would stutter and say ‘like’ basically every other word,” she said, “Sometimes, when I got really nervous, I felt like I wanted to puke.”

Butler finally made the decision sophomore year to take the Public Speaking class. She was tired of being nervous and wanted to be comfortable talking to a group of people, formally or not, she said. Overall, Butler became less afraid of being judged by others.

“Now I still get nervous, but not nearly as bad. My voice doesn’t stutter nor drop. I no longer feel like I’m going to puke when I get in front of a crowd,” Butler said. “I raise my hand in class more and I actually voice my opinion in group projects instead of sitting there quietly.”

To get better at public speaking, the very first thing is to look over your speech or practice with a friend. Admit to yourself that you can work through this fear, said Eichwald, because it is vital to the process of getting rid of the fear. Developing this courage can help with the aid from other students and peers, such as practicing public speaking in a class.

“We create an environment where all the students feel comfortable, where [the students] know each other, where they can feel relaxed and speak freely about any serious topic,” Kozlicki said.

In the Public Speaking class, Kozlicki offers the opportunity to work with everybody in the class, with quick, informal practices to build up to the bigger, more important speeches towards the end of the year. Developing confidence plays a key role in how comfortable the students will be later with the skills of public speaking, according to Kozlicki.

“I would take the class either to fine tune [public speaking] skills or get over that fear. And so I always recommend to get your feet wet in high school,” Kozlicki said.

Speaking in front of others will never end for anyone as they grow older, as some colleges require freshmen to take a public speaking class, Kozlicki said. Nevertheless, public speaking may be a hard feat to conquer, but will be necessary to you in the future.