So last week was Trick-or-Treat ToastMasters – meaning no one gave speeches. We spent the entire hour on Table Topics! Everyone submitted a few questions and then we were called on at random to pull whichever question came out of the metaphorical hat.
One of which was to speak on anything at all, without using the word ‘the.’
O_o
It was, thankfully, not mine, and the person who answered handled it with much more grace and humor than I would have. I’m still deciding how I feel about the question itself. I get that it’s more ‘trick’ than ‘treat’ and that it fit in with the theme of the stray outside the norm… but I also feel like it’s outside the spirit of ToastMasters in general. I don’t like setting people up to fail like that, and I don’t think it’s funny. We’re supposed to be adult professionals helping and encouraging each other, and that felt more like a child’s betting their friend they couldn’t do a bajillion chin ups – complete with fingers in the ears and tongue hanging out… if that makes sense lol. Maybe it’s just cause I’m still new-ish and nervous about being up in front at all, let alone handed a seemingly impossible task rather than asked a simple question… I dunno.
How would you have felt if it had been you called upon to answer that ‘question’?
The questions I WAS called on for were:
“What is your favorite place in the world and why?” and “If you could choose any sports figure to be on Bob’s* Fantasy Football team, who would it be and why?”
Both of which are fairly easy questions to answer. Even if I knew relatively nothing about sports, I could have picked any name at all and explained that it was only because it was the only name I knew. (I went with Shaq, by the way, because after watching Shaq Vs it’s become fairly obvious to me that the world needs more Shaq.) And it’s easy to talk about something you love when you are given a very specific question and asked to explain your answer. I could have talked about the tree near (whatusedtobe) the fountain at Baylor all day. I love that tree. I love a bajillion things about it for a bajillion different reasons. Easy peasy.
We are also in the middle of a race for a new chapter president, so there was a mini-debate. I’ll spare you all the details and just tell you that the result is that I have ganked the name of my band from our ToastMaster o’ the Day’s remarks following it.
Republican Fabulous will be famous someday…and you’ll all be able to say you knew me when it was just a dream I ganked from someone wittier than me… :-p
I volunteered to be the WAG for our next meeting. (Wordoftheday, “Ah-counter” and Grammarian) Baby steps up to the speech, people, baby steps. I know I mentioned on FaceBook that I settled on a topic for my first speech, but I still have to write and practice the thing lol.
Everyone keeps asking how I’m enjoying the meetings, and it makes me laugh. It’s almost embarrassing how much I am enjoying this whole ToastMasters thing. Do I admit (to more than I already have) that I’m blogging about it? What about the fact that I have lost sleep because I can’t stop thinking about how I would have answered this or that Table Topic question, or speech topics or speech openings or… I’m like an overgrown child with a shiny new toy, really. It’s a bright, shiny, happy spot in the middle of my week – each week. And it’s making me a better person, better professional and better speaker all at the same time – what’s not to like?!?
I’m hoping I can start on writing my speech after this weekend…and then start calling my friends to make them listen to it and time me before I sign up to give it for reals lol. Soon tho. I can’t hide in the shadows answering Table Topics forever…
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