Ms. Abdel-Magied went on, “As I stood up, my heart began to race. I could feel the eyes of the hundreds of audience members on my back: questioning, querying, judging. . . . The faces around me blurred. As my heels thudded against the grey plastic of the flooring, harmonizing with the beat of the adrenaline pumping through my veins, my mind was blank save for one question. ‘How is this happening?’”
