TOASTMASTERS

I’m a pretty old mouse and have conquered lots of public speaking challenges in my life, like teaching, and leading discussions. But many years ago I was so shy I couldn’t lead a bunch of two-year-olds at a birthday party. So I joined Toastmasters, and, surprisingly, I loved it! (I’m very competitive. You can be shy and competitive. Or at least you can if you’re Hugh Mouse.)

Every time I went to a meeting I leapt over a new hurdle. The first was the night I finally remembered to address my audience. I stood proudly and said, “Mr. Table Topics Master, Fellow Toastmasters, and Guests.” Then I launched into my statement – which fell flat, of course.

The next hurdle was when I made it to the green light at Table Topics time. That means I gave a full one-minute answer. You can’t just stand up, answer a question and sit down. (That would be more interesting sometimes.) No. You have to talk for a full minute. Stretch it out. BS your way through it – which I have never learned to do. (Could have learned from my daughter if I had really worked on it. It just comes naturally to her.)

We had a vocabulary word at each meeting, and everyone who had an opportunity to speak tried to use it. It isn’t easy to cleverly figure out how to use THE WORD when you have a couple dozen eyes focusing on you and you are trying to control your pounding heart, sweating palms and racing voice. I remember the night I did it. I zoomed into the driveway threw open the door, kissed all my family (who were glued to the TV) and proclaimed, “I said THE WORD! ‘Foible!’ Isn’t that a great word? Foible?”

Oh well. It was big to me.