Come Apart: to stop working effectively

Which is exactly what happened in my professor's office this afternoon. I've been working on a final project which I have the possibility of presenting in front of my class later this afternoon. Now, some of you probably know that I have a HARD time getting up in front of people and talking. "HARD" meaning, the last time I gave a talk in church, I spoke as quickly as possible, shook convulsively, thought I was going to pass out, and the minute I sat down I burst into tears and swore I would never put myself through that again. Except sometimes, it just can't be avoided. Like tonight. There isn't enough time for everyone to present their projects so my professor is drawing names out of a hat. And there's about a 50% chance that my name will get drawn. All day today, I've been giving myself a pep talk and then when I started actually putting my presentation together, I started to panic. Which led me to go talk to my professor to tell her that there was no way, no how I was going to present. Which led to me weeping and wailing and trying to explain that I couldn't present in front of people because it makes me nervous and I'd be more than willing to take the 10 point deduction for not presenting. Which led to her saying, "If your name gets drawn, I'll just ask you questions about your project. You won't even have to get up from your chair." Which led to me feeling a WHOLE lot better. Because I can do that. I can sit in my chair and have a conversation with my professor. I just hope that the rest of the class is ok with that approach to my presentation. It does make me feel a little silly, but it's a whole lot better than crying, passing out, shaking convulsively, throwing up, and/or otherwise "stop working effectively" in front of my classmates.