There was never a time in my childhood when I was asked to be on a stage for any reason. But getting up to do an oral book report was horrific. I would be sick for days before the assignment was due. I'd get so nervous that I'd shake, so I couldn't read what I had written. My throat would close up and get all dry, so it was nearly impossible to talk. Then when I was finished, I'd continue to feel sick and ashamed. I sometimes wondered why I felt so nervous. I never felt like I was worried about what other people thought, except for the fact that they would notice I was nervous. But why I was nervous in the first place, I have no idea.
In high school, I figured out that if I just said, "No, I'm not doing this assignment", and accepted the bad grade, no one seemed to care. At that point, I did care what others thought. I especially cared what my English teacher thought, and I knew he'd tease me for the rest of the year if he saw me in that debilitating state of fear.
In college, I dropped out of classes that required oral reports. I remember one class, when I was about 21 (college took me a decade, for other reasons). I was doing quite well in it, and had worked hard on my research project, and knew my topic very well. I got up in front of the class, and was so nervous that I couldn't read. I struggled for a while, but I was completely unable to function at all, let alone read and speak. A few of the people before me had been a bit nervous, and been marked down for presentation. I stopped after a couple of minutes of torture, and sat down. I remember spending the next few minutes trying to not call attention to myself by wiping the tears from my eyes. Eventually, I got up and left, and never came back.
Years later, in a few other college classes, I was able to do oral reports with a manageable amount of nervousness. I think the trick was to get older. I still was uncomfortably nervous, but no more than anyone else.
I've never been on a stage, except as part of high school band. I would not have been able to do a solo. I would get so nervous when the guy next to me did his solo, just imagining that it was me, that it made me feel sick. Luckily, I wasn't a very good sax player like he was, so I was never asked to do a solo. My kids have done plays and musical performances every year at school. I went to seven different schools growing up, and not one of them had any opportunities for being on stage. It's just as well, because I would have died.
That fear of public speaking has influenced my life a lot. I remember thinking in high school that I don't want to go to university, because they might expect me to do oral reports. I also rejected the idea of any career choice that might involve speaking in front of others.