Writings by Diane

This week I participated in my Toastmaster International 's club speech competition and I came in second place.  I was surprised that I wasn't extremely disappointed. As one of my favorite quotes from an episode of The Golden Girls goes, “You know, that would have devastated the old me, but the new me? Just an emotional owie!”   I tell my son everyone wants to win, but since we all can't,  it's how you handle losing that makes all of the difference.Sure, I would have liked to have won and gone onto the next level of competition. Did my losing sour my resolve to try again? Absolutely not! I identified the areas I need to improve and will compete in the next competition in the fall.  I also found myself  focusing what I had accomplished. The person I competed against is a professional speaker, so I’m getting out of my comfort zone and strengthening my speech-delivery muscles. After the competition, a few people told me they really enjoyed my speech, so hope...

There I was sitting at the area speech competition for Toastmasters International , waiting for my turn. A few minutes ago, I had just received news that the Tall Tale speech that I had practiced at my club to rave reviews, was too long. At the practice run, I had clocked in at 6 minutes, 4 seconds, which was great when I thought the speech was supposed to be 5-7 minutes long. However, I was just informed by the competition official time keepers that the Tall Tale speech is 3-5 minutes.   Currently the speech I had prepared for was over by 1 minute 4 seconds, instant disqualification. There were two other gentlemen that were in the Tall Tale Competition as well.  The first man started pacing back and forth quietly lamenting that he thought he had 5-7 minutes as well to give his speech. The other man confidently announced, “That’s what I planned for!”  He reminded me of Sergeant Harvey Walden IV from Celebrity Fit Club .  This former Marine sergeant was alwa...