Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Winning

Two posts in one day and each on completely opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.  Lest you think I have a personality disorder (okay, if you ask my brother, he’ll say that I do), I want to assure you that the Oreos are gone, I’m quite fine, and sometimes people just have off nights.  I bet you’ve lain awake in the wee hours of the night worrying about something that bothered you.  It happens.  Lucky for me, I woke up this morning (whew!) and I was feeling much better.
And today wasn’t just any old day.  Nope.  Today was Toastmasters!  Last night, I wrote an “Icebreaker” speech basically about who I am and what I like to do – work, travel, and watch Deadliest Catch.  This morning I emailed the Grand Toastmaster and asked to be put on the agenda as one of the speakers.  Hey, if I’m going to do this thing, I’m not gonna waste my gas just to drive somewhere and listen to other people speak for an hour. 
What’s this? 
It’s where my trophy would be if the previous winner - known as Trophy Hoarder Guy - hadn’t “forgotten” to bring it tonight.  I’m a trophy-less winner.  That’s right.  I won best speaker!  There was only one other speaker but I still won - even without voting for myself!
In my evaluation, Trophy Hoarder Guy gave me high marks for the content of my speech and my enthusiasm for the things that I talked about.  My area to work on is learning how to slow down and take a breath.  I spoke for four minutes and they said I had a good five minutes of material (who needs an extra minute?!) 
Maybe it’s not the speaking part that I need to work on – maybe I need to practice breathing and pausing.  So, just in case we’re engaged in a conversation and I suddenly stop talking, don’t worry, I’m just taking a breath and practicing my pauses.  

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Congratulations!

    You know, I was thinking about you all day today. I thought the post you wrote last night was raw and honest and relatable and I wished all day that I could think of just the right words to say in response to you. I don't have the right words, but I'm still thinking about you. I'm glad you started blogging, and I'm glad that on a hard night you had the courage to write about it openly and honestly.

    It's cheesy to say, but -- you're inspiring. :) (See that dash? That was me, practicing pauses.)

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  2. Thanks Emily. That means a lot. I actually thought about your powerful "do you love me because I'm pretty mommy?" post that night too. I think I need to subscribe to Katherine's view of the world.

    And, I enjoy cheese and corn, especially cheesy corniness so -- thanks.

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