I joined Toastmasters early this year. They meet weekly in the conference room of the library where I'm children's services librarian.
The door to the room is glass and, although most of the room is obscured by a wall, in passing I'd see strange red, amber and green lights and hear muffled laughter and applause.
Curious, I asked around to see what I could find out about Toastmasters. The result was that I was tempted to join.
I'll not elaborate on Toastmasters, as, if you are keen to know more you can simply look at their website or even visit your local club.
Enough to say it seemed like it would be great fun for me. The one thing that held me back for a long time was fear of the 'table topics' aspect of the meetings, where anyone can be called to the floor and at that point given a topic to speak on for one or two minutes.I was terrified that I'd be given something highbrow or political.
Truth is, if you are given a topic you don't know anything about it is necessary to sidestep the point and address the question from a comfortable position. This is a skill that I'm learning and I really admire Toasties that are slick in this manner.
Now to the photo.
I'm a 'life be in it' kind of person, if anyone says 'let's' I'll always reply with a 'yes'. This often gets me into situations where I have to stretch myself. I often curse this part of my nature, but on the other hand I gain lots of satisfaction when I achieve what I set out to do.
'Hay! Sue, there's a Humerous Speech competition coming up, are you going in it?'
There was only one reply I could give.
The outcome is captured for posterity in the photo above and you can almost see my tail wagging - as I won.
The speech was titled 'A nice quiet cup of tea' and was abaout 'toilet paper'.
You are quite right, it is good to step outside your comfort zone and try new things - big or small - I'm doing it myself at the moment. Well done with your prize, toastie!
I joined Toastmasters early this year. They meet weekly in the conference room of the library where I'm children's services librarian.
ReplyDeleteThe door to the room is glass and, although most of the room is obscured by a wall, in passing I'd see strange red, amber and green lights and hear muffled laughter and applause.
Curious, I asked around to see what I could find out about Toastmasters. The result was that I was tempted to join.
I'll not elaborate on Toastmasters, as, if you are keen to know more you can simply look at their website or even visit your local club.
Enough to say it seemed like it would be great fun for me. The one thing that held me back for a long time was fear of the 'table topics' aspect of the meetings, where anyone can be called to the floor and at that point given a topic to speak on for one or two minutes.I was terrified that I'd be given something highbrow or political.
Truth is, if you are given a topic you don't know anything about it is necessary to sidestep the point and address the question from a comfortable position. This is a skill that I'm learning and I really admire Toasties that are slick in this manner.
Now to the photo.
I'm a 'life be in it' kind of person, if anyone says 'let's' I'll always reply with a 'yes'. This often gets me into situations where I have to stretch myself. I often curse this part of my nature, but on the other hand I gain lots of satisfaction when I achieve what I set out to do.
'Hay! Sue, there's a Humerous Speech competition coming up, are you going in it?'
There was only one reply I could give.
The outcome is captured for posterity in the photo above and you can almost see my tail wagging - as I won.
The speech was titled 'A nice quiet cup of tea' and was abaout 'toilet paper'.
You are quite right, it is good to step outside your comfort zone and try new things - big or small - I'm doing it myself at the moment. Well done with your prize, toastie!
ReplyDeleteStar job there Sue, but then we expect nothing less from you! :-)
ReplyDeleteSo happy to hear about your success Sue, well done. :-)
ReplyDelete