Our Toastmaster, you are a family!

Yesterday was the best day for me to experience the warmest of our Toastmaster group.  I volunteered to present that day and little did I know that the traffic on my way there have eaten all of the buffer that I have prepared for my speech groundwork. I had a choice to wink it out by using my laptop to present or forced my way to use the projector. –But guess what! I did try to force my way in …

The preparation took longer than we have anticipated. But, the team was so supportive. A lot of people lent their hands to make it worked. But the disruption took over most of us. So lessons learned:

1. Always have plan A when plan B doesn’t work
2. Projector is good but setup time needed prior

Despite all of the commotions, the meeting went on as usual. We did lose some time and didn’t get to do the Table Topic but we have ended the meeting with a good note on lessons learned. The best of all, a birthday cake for Olga, our most animated story teller! –She was so poised up there in the front and she won the Best Speaker of the night. Well deserved!

What so amazing about of all of these was, no one even try to make me feel bad about the whole thing. They gently gave me their feedbacks in the hope of sharing the lesson learned with the rest of the group. Sal even tried to leave me a positive note by saying, despite all of the distractions, I did good for not giving up! Where can you find a place like this? Like Matt said in the meeting, where could be the better place to learn that than in Toastmaster?

This reminded me when we were younger or with our children. We want them to fall down and learn how to pick up themselves while they are at home, the most secure and friendly place. At the same time, we give them the encouragement, assurance and the up most positive feedback there are.

Imagine this, if I were to do it at my work place or business place, I would have probably tainted my professional image. But here at Toastmaster, we are allowed for fall down and pick up ourselves and the most we would hear is the constructive feedbacks.  This is another reason why I love Toastmaster, not just any Toastmaster, but like Hassan has said, “It was more like a family!”

I would like to end this note with a quote from Marianne E. Neifert, “The family is both the fundamental unit of society as well as the root of culture. It ... is a perpetual source of encouragement, advocacy, assurance, and emotional refueling that empowers a child to venture with confidence into the greater world and to become all that he can be.” –That is how our Toastmaster is to all of us, the members!

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I hope you enjoy this journey of mine visiting our very own Toastmaster!

Until next stop,
Journey of Life