I won a ribbon at Toastmasters!

Some of you might know that I've never been a Toastmaster. I came to public speaking in a roundabout way, first as an actor in junior high, then as a speech competitor in high school, then back to theater in college, then as an advocate, trainer and educator in the nonprofit sector.

For some 15 years, I was paid to go out into the community and provide education to youth and adults on domestic violence, healthy sexuality, media literacy, communication skills, and gender equity. I gave presentations, I led workshops, I trained trainers, I spoke on panels at statewide conferences. . . and I never heard of Toastmasters until a few years ago.

Well, tonight I attended my first Toastmaster meeting, as the guest of one of my clients. She was giving her tenth speech (a milestone in Toastmasters), and is preparing to take this speech out into the community, which is what we're working on together.

I enjoyed listening to the different speakers (and evaluating them!), and the club was friendly and welcoming. The structure and formalities and multiple introductions seem to take up a lot of time, when people could just be speaking, but those are the rules.

One portion of the Toastmasters meeting is devoted to "table topics" - club members are called on to speak extemporaneously for a minute and a half about a topic chosen by the, uh, table topic master?

She called on me and I got flustered. I don't like extemporaneous speaking (unless I'm already well-versed on the topic). Yes, we all have our weaknesses, and this is mine. Also, I get really red when I'm flustered or embarrassed (more on that later). Ugh.

But I also believe in pushing myself to do the things that make me uncomfortable, because that's how I get better as a speaker! I could have resisted, but that would have made me look like an idiot. And what kind of public speaking coach says no to an opportunity to speak?

I got up and spoke for my minute and a half about how, if I could travel anywhere and money was no object, I would travel all over the UK. I went on and on about how London is my favorite place on earth, etc. I don't really remember what I said, because as I said before, extemporaneous speaking isn't my strong point. I do recall the red light going on, and later hearing that my talk was actually one minute and 34 seconds. Oops.

I also learned, from the "ah" counter, that I didn't use a single "uh" or "um" in my talk. To understand the irony of this, you have to know that I don't care about "ums" and "uhs." This is one of the areas in which Toastmasters and I part ways about public speaking. But I digress. As usual.

At the end of the evening, votes were compiled in a couple of different categories including table topics. It turns out that, out of five table topic presenters, I was the winner! I even got a "Best Table Topics" ribbon.

The experience gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling toward Toastmasters. If only I had won the raffle. . .

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