Mission impossible
Toastmaster, honorable guests and dear members, good afternoon,
What am I doing standing here? I really want to be seated with you because my first encounter with speech was just ridiculous.
For me, delivering a speech is hard. It is mission impossible.The story started when I was only 8 years old. My teacher sent me to a speech contest to speak on “保密防諜”. It was a very typical topic for my generation. I stepped onto the huge , magnificent stage and began with a typical sweet voice:各位評判老師,各位同學,我所要講的題目是“保密防諜”. 保密,就是保守國家的機密; 防諜,就是防止匪諜的入侵---Even after all these years, I can still remember my script. But, in the middle of the speech, I suddenly forgot the rest of my lines! I was embarrassed, I was frightened, and I wished I could just die right then and there. But all I could do was stand like a fool until the bell rang.
So if you ask me is giving a speech hard? I’ll say-- it is not only a hard work but a disaster! It is a nightmare.
When I was in junior high school, I was once again chosen to take part in a speech contest. My topic was處變不驚,莊敬自強. Yes, again, I am reminding you of my age. That was about the time Taiwan was excluded from the United Nations. I did finish my speech this round, but it still wasn't any fun for me. With this extremely vast topic, with all the heavy duty to save our country and our大陸同胞from水深火熱, my speech was definitely going nowhere.
Is delivering a speech hard? It is boring! It’s talking about nothing but cliché!
And in my freshman’s year in college, there was a speech contest. No, I didn’t go. My classmate, Ronald, took part in an impromptu speech. He had only five minutes to prepare. Ronald’s topic was:
如果我當了爸爸
. He said:如果我當了爸爸,我一定非常高興,因為
—He pointed to the two mottos hanging on the wall of the auditorium: 先總統蔣公曾明示我?: “生活的目的,在增進人類全體的生活,生命的意義,-----在創造宇宙繼起的生命.”
Gee, what a twist from先總統蔣公’s awesome motto to his unborn child before he married. The audience laughed and applauded. And yes,he won first place that day.
For the first time in life, I wondered perhaps giving a speech might be fun.
As years went by, I got married and I became a mother—in that order—. Even though I never ever dreamed of giving a speech, I encouraged my kids to do it. You might think I’m the kind of demanding mother who tries to fulfill her dreams through her children. I’ll definitely deny that. But maybe somewhere deep inside my heart, a voice is whispering: I haven’t done it right yet.
Last year in March, Wendy called:” Linda, we are going to hold a demo meeting of toastmasters club, you must come and see!” So I came, I saw, and I joined the club.
In toastmasters club, all the speeches I’ve heard impressed me. Lillian’s speech was so touching, it moved me to tears; Bessie’s speech was very humorous, we just couldn’t help laughing; Karen’s speech was brilliant, everybody admired her. Most of all, these speeches came from the heart and they brought us closer to one another.
And Jessie’s national winning speech was just incredible! How did she do it? She told us while she was preparing the speech; her mind was constantly searching for the right words and phrases. Then one day while she was parking, an excellent sentence suddenly came to her. She was so excited that her car hit the wall and her bumper fell off. It cost her ten thousand dollars to fix it.
So is delivering a speech hard? I’ll still say it is. Sometimes it can be a disaster. And there are times it’s just a cliche.
However, in toastmasters club, giving a speech can be touching, interesting, challenging and sometimes even expensive!
Delivering a speech was mission impossible for me. But I believe that if I work hard, nothing is impossible. And impossible is nothing! So here I am, standing in front of you, delivering my speech.