I'm still reeling. Pull me in.
I'm doing the fish hook dance, trying to contain the exhilaration from my first speech delivered to my new Beach Cities Toastmaster's Club in Manhattan Beach, California. The first speech is an Ice Breaker and requires I introduce myself to the club.
I plan to upload the recorded speech, as soon as I find the USB cable cord.
So, in the meantime, as I reconnect with the surface of the earth, I will give a brief overview of my speech. To start, my opener was this:
When you go shopping and the sales associate asks, "Can I help you find anything?" I reply, "Just looking." If you are anything like me, inwardly, I am two mindsets. One, I have no idea what I am looking for and no amount of help will make that happen. Two, I know exactly what I want and I want to find it on my own. Both of those describe my approach to life.
Then, I speak about my pre-school dream to become a helicopter driver, my intent on college and quickly onto grad school. I explain the importance of my graduate internship in Malawi, in Southern Africa and then move onto my desire to reconnect to my people by choosing to teach English in China. I highlight my love of local cuisine and favorite province within China, Gang Su. I mention my favorite country, Myanmar and the lovely people. Then I wrap it up with my future goals:
1.) To one day become the Rick Steves of Asia
2.) Create a reality TV show set in China, featuring foriengers
3.) Develop sustainable businesses and partnerships in China
Although it is a quick summary of my speech, as I look back on that paragraph, I really need to upload the sound file because that is a boring recap.
The feedback I get from my peer evaluations and assigned evaluator made my head explode with encouragement. The bad first, I clear my throat and lip smack...a lot. 6 throat clears and 8 lip smacks, wow! I also should include a stronger closing that wraps up what I hope others will take away from my speech. My eye contact could use some work also. I will work on spending more time away from my notes and individually on each person. Much easier said than done because it seems intrusive to focus on someone for longer than 2 seconds.
The good points are my speech variety, voice strength and confidence. My content was engaging and the speech it self was well prepared. Many club members say that it looked comfortable, even natural. Funny how the inside emotions don't match the outside presentation.
Amist the nervousness and anxiety before the speech, it takes me 20 minutes to come down and stop shaking. Thankfully, few people notice.
The surprise cincher, I win Best Speaker among the 3 speakers at the meeting. That sends me to the moon and makes my week.
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