I Won Again!

Today is Wednesday so it is the day for our weekly Toastmaster meetings. For anyone not familiar with Toastmasters, my description is this:
A club made up of individuals whose common goal is to become better public speakers and leaders by participating in weekly roles that utilize communication and leadership skills.

The roles within each weekly meeting are designed for each participant to practice speaking in a group setting for 1 - 2 minutes or longer if you give a prepared speech on the topic of your choice. I have enjoyed being involved in our club but plan to call it quits in June due to the time commitment.

Anyway, each meeting everyone votes on the Best Speaker, Best Evaluator and Best Table Topics speaker. Table Topics are so fun! It is when the Table Topics Master picks people in the audience at random and give them a topic to speak on for 1-2 minutes. Any topic is fair game. Today's Table Topics Master had topics for us to draw from that range from your best dream to how to become a millionaire to describe the rules of your favorite game. My topic was to describe my favorite moment as if I was a famous sports player.

This was perfect because my favorite moment in sports is a true story. When I was in the fourth grade I was asked to be on my elementary school's girls basketball team. I was the only fourth grader and thought that was cool. Most of the season I rode the bench but toward the end of the season I was let in the game because all the other subs had fouled out.

I recall being so excited and scared at the same time. I knew no one would pass me the ball but at least I got in the game. I remember pulling my socks up to my knees and making sure my shirt was tucked inside my shorts as tight as possible.

Needless to say the ball was passed to me with 10 seconds left in the game. I remember I was in the corner but too far from the goal for anyone to think I would make the shot. Everyone screamed, "Shoot! Shoot!" I closed my eyes and threw it towards the basket. Swish!!!!!!! The roof came off the gym. I could not believe it. My Assistant Coach who later was my sixth grade teacher can tell the story to this very day. This was the best moments of my entire athletic career, and I played basketball through my sophomore year of college.


Anyway, I told this story with as much zeal as I probably had during that moment. After all the speeches for Table Topics were done, we voted on who was the best speaker. Jodye won second place for telling us how she received the nickname Sunshine and I won first place!

This is my third 1st place ribbon for speaking at our Toastmaster's meetings. I have to wonder though if I win because I am a good speaker or because I have exciting things happen in my life. The other two ribbons I won was when I spoke about my college roommate and I shaving our legs in the sink in the dorm because we did not know you are suppose to shave in the shower. We had never done it before and thought we could talk to each other while we did it. Later we realized how disgusting that was.

The other ribbon was when I picked the topic of "Do you love your job?" I gave a resounding No! and shared with them that I would love to spend eight hours a day teaching young people and adults how to manage their money. I appreciate having a job so do not get me wrong but eventually I want to run my personal business full-time. I think I won that time because of my honesty and conviction. Regardless, I celebrate me today for winning... again!