Is It Contest Season Already?

When I first joined Toastmasters, my goal was to earn a Distinguished Toastmaster designation. I thought that designation would be the end of my Toastmaster career. However, the more meetings I attend, the more meetings I want to attend.

A few years ago, I thought 'if only I could speak like so and so'; in actuality, I had to find my own voice (similar to authors). It seemed that my forte (so to speak) was with humorous (not comedy) presentations.

When I was quite young, Dr. Seuss books were my favorite. I can still recite most of the words from Green Eggs & Ham, and another of my childhood favorites, Are You My Mother?.

My natural gift is an innate ability to write rhymes. Many presentations I gave were rhymes. I've been told that they are quite amusing; to that end, a great majority of the presentations that are "contest worthy" are in the form of rhymes. I thought I'd continue along that vein, until one of my Toastmaster brothers compared my presentations to Dr. Seuss. Although I'm sure the comment was not meant as a put down, I began to think that perhaps my presentations were a bit elementary. Since then, I've began to rethink my presentations -- stepping out of the proverbial box (so to speak).

Even though our Area contest has already taken place (and I was not a participant), I began thinking of the 2010 Tall Tales and International Speech Contest. The Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest will take place in the Fall -- so that gives me quite a bit of time to write and rehearse a presentation for the 2010 International Speech Contest.

Our club (Dynamic 90's) members believe it's a good idea to participate in contests. We encourage all members to participate at least one time. I certainly believe that competing outside of the club is a great way for each of us to build our confidence and presentation skills, as well as an opportunity to network with other clubs, and see other speaking styles.

I encourage all members to participate in contests, and one of my goals is to participate in , all 4 contests.