Project Speech 10 - Delivered at my home club during chapter meeting. For a 'graduation' project, it was successful as an account of my toastmaster's path. However, as a speech that is inspiring, it fell short of its objective. That is the greatest regret in my journey towards Competent Communicator.
September 19 is a very
significant day in history. In the year 1985 on this very day, an 8.1 scale
earthquake shook Mexico and caused the death of 12 thousand people and another
40 thousand injured. In the year 2006 on the every same day, the Thai military
staged a coup in Bangkok, and caused a political change that shook the whole
nation. In the year 2011, September 19, a clueless lady walked through that
door and participated in a Toastmaster event that eventually changed her life.
That clueless lady, is me. Yep, it is not earth shattering like an earthquake,
neither is it an international incident that shakes the nation; but it is still
just as significant to me because that day, I
made the decision to sign up for the membership and became a toastmaster
of this club.
One year hence (actually 2 days
short of one year), I stand before you, a changed person after going through 9
speeches. Tonight, my fellow toastmasters and guests, on the occasion of my 10th
and last speech for the Competent Communicator manual, I would like to take a moment
to share with you this amazing journey and some of the most memorable
experiences I gain through the past one year. And I hope my sharing tonight
will inspire you to join me in this toastmasters' journey.
We are all here for a purpose,
and my purpose from day one was quite clear to me – to learn how to speak in
front of an audience and eventually become a polished speaker. I knew that the
Toastmaster program is a series of speeches with increasing difficulty to help
us achieve our goal in a gradual and structured manner. And so, my first memorable
experience was the most difficult task of actually preparing for these
speeches.
Now, it is not like I have not speak in front of an audience before, I do presentations at work all the time, but, presentations to me is routine, I simply have to read out whatever that is written on the slides and I absolutely do not care if you listen to it at all, it might even be better if you sleep through it. That would mean no questions for me J. However, these Toastmaster speeches are a totally new ball game. How do you expect me to speak for 5 mins without slides or notes or any materials? I am not naturally a chatty person and I can’t just rattle off like that! I don’t think fast enough on my feet so surviving on only a few random thoughts in my head is absolutely not going to last me 5 long mins! And so it started, whenever I have to deliver a speech the next day, the night before is the most agonizing! I have to, absolutely have to type out my speech word for word, yes word for word! It is hardwork for me as it is something that I would naturally do. I don’t keep a diary, I can’t even get the grammar right in a sentence, and now I have to write out a full speech? And that, is not the worst part!
The worst part is when I switched
on the computer, opened a fresh word document, and… nothing happened! Many a
times, I simply do not know what to say in my speeches! Oohh… to come up with
the content of the speeches was an agonizing experience! Now for P1 – the ice
breaker, it is relatively easy, you are supposed to talk about yourself so I
shared about my childhood love for fantasies. The topic is given, problem
solved, quite easily done. But, when I came to P2, that’s where I made the
first mistake. I used a technical subject – the personality profiling tool –
for my speech, and that was a disaster! With no slides to help me and too much
content, the audience simply could not follow me! Lesson learnt – keep it light
with manageable content delivered in simple terms. So, from P3 onwards, I
decided to change strategy and talk about things and events that happened in my
life, thinking that it would also help me to better memorize it, afterall those
events did really happened to me. Sounds like a good plan, except that, I am usually
a very private person, not someone that would tell my life stories to just
anyone easily. However, somehow, as though I was spellbound, every one of my
subsequent speech is a bit of me that is shared and left behind. In P3 and P9
the topics are related to my 2 lovely dogs whom I held so dearly. For P4 and
P6, I shared about my travel experiences to the nearby countries, something
that I enjoyed doing very much. When I delivered my P5, my choir just had a
successful full house performance at the art house and that became the topic of
my speech. Ah, when I did my P8 and P9,
it was simply great fun. I finally get to use presentation slides! But by now I
was already a total convert. Sticking to my winning formula of sharing personal
anecdotes rather than technical stuff, I decided to share my photography experience,
and I get to show-off some of my best photos.
As I looked back at those stuff that I shared, I have no regrets. It has
been great fun sharing a bit of me and left behind a trail of beautiful
memories.
My toils and sweat while writing
out the speeches eventually paid off. They turned into many 5 glorious minutes
for me, knowing that I did my best and delivered the speech as it was intended,
with my heart and soul. The satisfaction and sense of achievement is absolute,
not to mention the adrenaline rush that I get everything standing at this very
spot, battled my own nervousness.
Yes, adrenaline, ladies and
gentlemen, forget bungee jumping or sky diving if you are the kind that goes
for the occasional adrenaline boost. Come to toastmasters and start delivering
your speech, and every time without fail, I felt my legs are turning into
jellies and my tummy’s full of wide butterflies! Someone measure my blood
pressure now, it has probably shot through the roof! In my honest opinion, the
toastmasters program expects a superman out of each of us.. imagine having to
curb our urge to dash out of the door, we still have to ensure the right body
language with right gestures and facial expressions, and the clear eye contact
for every.. one.. in the room. That’s not all, you also have to pepper your
speech with pauses, weird rhetorical devices such as “Onomatopoeia”
and ensure the right volume. Hey, there are some people that simply could not
multitask! But, look at me now… not that I have mastered all these, but I am
now more conscious of what I say, how I say it and definitely the impact of my
speech. Now, if anyone sleeps at my presentations at work, they had
better watch out. I am more conscious of my audience responses and I adjust my
words and mannerism accordingly. Absolutely no one, can deny that the
toastmaster’s training has transformed me from a clueless lady and a stronger
speaker. Truly, this has been the greatest benefit to me so far.
So ladies and gentlemen, we are
all going through this amazing journey together and I believe each of us will
benefit in various ways. I for one, will certainly continue to work at it, for
I can see all the good that happened to me so far. Now that I am already in
this program, I am certainly going to get the best out of it, and so should
you! Start your own toastmaster’s journey today, and I can bet you, you will
not regret it. In the words of my
beloved friend and mentor, Carolyn, she once said to me “my dear, this, is only
the beginning.”
Thank you, TME.
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