Thursday, June 16, 2005

My first speech... Done :)

first I've gotta say... holy crap.

next..... I feel like I just threw the last rock of the game ;) I may need a minute here. Nope. Not helping.

Holy crap!

First, I felt like such a geek picking a speech title based on a book by Stephen Hawking. The Toastmaster asked where the title came from, then researched the book and outlined what it was about. Now I don't just feel like a geek, I look like one. Quantum mechanics, the origins of time and the universe. But it was too late. My fate was sealed :) Hey, at least I didn't talk about curling.

I was nervous. Kinda. Well, ok, I was terrified. I hate getting up in front of people to speak. But I did it. Damned stubbornness. But, I've decided I'm doing this so I might as well get started.

So, my evaluation. Damn... he didn't write it down. Oh well. He liked that I gave a good look into that part of my life. Felt I could move around more and hold eye contact longer. That was my official evaluator. Then came the little slips of paper from other members. Very positive overall which is great. Heh, my favorite one - excellent voice, good poise. Poise???? POISE???? ! I was shaking in my... running shoes up there.

So, two of us spoke - myself and a girl who is on her 7th speech. There are ballots that allow members to pick who they think the best speaker, evaluator, etc was. I figured being up against Tegan meant no hope for me. I won it by one vote. I think they felt sorry for me.

Nerves. It really was no different than going to throw my last rock in curling. I was going to say there were more people watching, but there were only 11 people at the meeting. Which means 10 watching. On a sheet of ice, there are 7 watching to start with. The only difference there is confidence. I know I'm a good curler. And aside from the odd wrong decision that costs me four points - well, five, counting the one I gave the opposition - I'm pretty confident in my ability out there.

I'm not so confident in my ability to speak in front of people and hold their interest for any length of time. It's that part of me that still thinks of myself as a kid. And what do I really know about anything? Hmmm, maybe next time I should speak about curling.

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