Contests are the breakfast for winners
While feeling nostalgic, all the toastmasters would feel grateful to realize how far they have come😊. It is true that every toastmaster would experience this at least once during contest seasons.
I am no exception to human emotions: it was 2019, I joined my first Toastmasters club in Chennai around the same time of the year. Obviously, I was roped in to participate in humorous contest by the VPEd despite my resistance - this is called "motivation" in Toastmasters😅. I tried to explain that I'd never even read a school rhyme in English on stage let alone a speech; forget a humorous speech. Of course, no VPEd will leave you alone when you say you're not ready. I was somehow convinced to contest.
In spite of the nerve wrecking fear, frantically I came up with a script to begin the TM journey on a good note. Here it is on my medium. The contest master invited me with a lot of fervor as if I were the lion coming to roar. But I was like, "Singama!! Enga??" (Lion ah!! Where??). Yet I delivered the speech surprisingly good and it was received well by the audience. There I was, proud of myself for delivering my first ever speech that too in a contest. Although I didn't win the contest that time (which is too much to expect😋), I received a lot of appreciations from my fellow toastmasters. That's the beginning of a never-ending path to learnings.
Toastmasters International has become my gurukul: to see the world differently, to agree to disagree, to network. There are now some amazing personalities in my acquaintance that I admire - all thanks to the platform that is so aptly shaped to handle the diverse human emotions and characters.
Out of all the learnings, one is personally paramount to me i.e TI gives the opportunity to fail again and again. Yet somehow every toastmaster will get the energy to go give it another try. The reason I believe is the core strength of this international organization - Universal brotherhood. The support you get from your fellow toastmasters is remarkable. Nobody is gonna ridicule you for your failure instead you are encouraged to fail again in turn you grow better. Effectively this makes failure = success.
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default"
J. K. Rowling
The natural change in a toastmaster's character to become a servant leader is something to be venerated. The world will be a better place, if everyone is a toastmaster - all the toastmasters would agree on this. I am truly grateful for the lifetime opportunity and the wonderful journey so far with the Toastmasters fraternity.
Alright, that's the end of my nostalgia & it is time to open the memory diaries and get ready for the contest.
Go dust your funny side.
Go evaluate every speech as constructively as you can.
Here's wishing all the toastmasters a grand failure (success) 😁
_Yasin_
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