A Learning Experience

Gosh! It was my first time at a Divisional Speech contest! I was meeting the cream of the crop of champion speakers many of whom had been with toastmasters' club for more than 5 years. My limited experience of 10 months made me feel like a "baby" among the giants. I prayed hard that during the two to two and a half minutes when I presented my speech, I would not be caught in my spasm of coughing. God really answered my prayer. My spasm of coughing came after the speech and I immediately left the hall.

I did not win the coveted top three prizes. It was a learning experience. Indeed Toastmasters' activities provide continuous learning for anyone who wants to keep on learning. I will take a break from contests as from June onwards, I will be taking up the post of Area Governor for Division U3. This is mandatory if I want to achieve my Distinguished Toastmaster's title after completing the 10 advanced projects for Gold. Toastmasters not only train us to speak well but to lead well... hence their leadership training programmes. I look forward to helping to organise the Humorous speech contest that is coming up in August and to mentor a new club.

The Lieutenant Governor for Marketing, Goh Wei Koon, is right. We should all try to introduce or recruit members to join toastmasters' activities, for they help to bring out the best in a member. Every member who makes an effort to improve his speaking skills will definitely improve. How I wish I could have learnt about Toastmasters' activities earlier, so that those speeches and testimonies I shared at weddings, funerals and in my church would have been more effectively delivered!

Better late than never, as they say. I will put my heart and soul to learning more about public speaking. It helps that I will be moving to a flat just next to the Little India MRT station in July. This will help me save time as I can zip around clubs more easily as Little India is right in the heart of the city. It is also only one MRT stop away from my office at Park Mall. For exercise, I will try to walk back from my office in the evenings when it is not too warm.