Public speaking makes me very nervous and I am always anxious.
Surprisingly, I am on a tour all around Iceland as the International Visits Program guest speaker through the INL of NA and the INL of Iceland. It seems that I am on a path that I would never have chosen. Over the past 10 years, a few small changes in my life have caused a sort of domino-effect or chain reaction. One small movement (working on genealogy) caused a similar movement (helping others with their genealogy), which caused more movement (writing articles, papers, Facebook sites, and books) and these linked events have caused a large change in my life.
I have met so many interesting and wonderful people. Some of them have been instrumental in this life-change. They encourage and support me in this journey to promote and preserve our Icelandic heritage.
In the past month, I have been interviewed many times. I have never experienced this before in my life and have been very apprehensive about it. However, everyone has been very nice. All of them keep me calm and at ease while they asked their questions and it seemed more like a conversation than an interview. It was actually not that scary at all.
Here are the Morgunblaðið articles: 2012-08-17 Morgunblaðið and Morgunblaðið Sunna Pam Furstenau (here in English) by Iceland Review Online.
The US Ambassador attended the INL of Iceland Convention in Akureyri and had nice comments on his blog. Gunna Dís of Andri on Virkir morgnar at RÚV did a radio interview. and a TV interview in Akureyri by N4 and lots of different posts like this and this.
I know that public speaking is difficult for me and it causes stress but I truly feel that this is what I am supposed to be doing. I believe God has led me to this position. He strengthens me, gives me courage, and has a plan for my life. Everything happens for a reason. Here is a beautiful rainbow over the Þórðarhöfði north of Hofsós í Skagafjörður.
