Toast to My Virgin Speech

Last year, in April, I happen to be in Kuching and incidentally, I had to stay back on a Sunday night. My good buddy, Stanley, invited me to a Toastmaster evening. I had never attended one before and this is the first time. I just tack along so as to observe what's this Toastmaster all about.

The Toastmaster of the evening was one DTM Dunstan Chan, who I came to know is an outstanding "superstar" and decorated orator. That night, I was immensely attracted by their values and also impressed by the oratory skills of various of the members.

I knew I met my "waterloo" and I knew I had a lot to learn from all of these people. I had no hesitation to immediately sign-up as a member and to become part of this new family.

The setback for me is the fact that I am not from Kuching and will not be able to attend most of their functions nor be able to participate in their biweekly programmes. Somehow, I just wanted to be a part of this family and hopefully be able to participate in their functions whenever possible.

Three weeks ago, I received a call from the VPE Ms Diong inviting me to participate and make my first maiden Manual Speech. It was coincidental that I would be in Kuching on the designated night and I gladly accepted the challenge.

However, I really didn't know what I was suppose to speak until that night on 20th July. On the night itself I went early and VPE Diong was there. I was then told what to speak and given a book to read about the requirements of the speech. I had to quickly organized by thoughts and gather something relevant for my speech. The topic was a simple introduction of myself and I had to speak for between 4-6 minutes.

Whatever it is, I did speak and frankly, I didn't consciously know what I was trying to speak; maybe, just blurting out what comes to my mind irrespective whether it is garbage or trash; but I must affirm that it was the "self", the real "me" that I spoke about.

To my surprise, I was granted and adjudged as the best speaker for the night and it was a great honor to receive a ribbon of recognition. It was first award I had received in my life for public speaking and certainly, it was a motivation. I hope to participate in more of these speeches and improve on my oratory skills. For the record, my speech had many "ahs" and "lahs" and a lot of other bad habits and I had to be conscious about those habits and eliminate them. Mr Dunstan, "I want to be as good as you;" pls mentor me.

This is my ribbons of the night:

Salutations:

Thank you Kuching Toastmaster Club & President ACB CL Poh KY;
thank you VPE Diong LJ;
thanks to my evaluator CTM CL Robert Chang;
thanks to Toastmaster of the evening CTM CL Frankie Yang;
and most of all, thanks to all the members for the gift of recognition. Hope to be with you all in the coming events.