*I intially typed this out on my iphone as i was waiting for the results.
It's Called the "THANK YOU"
I have grown in this family called Toastmasters.
Since joining the movement since 2000 while still in serving my National Service I have prepared countless speeches and pushed my self to taking part in many contests at various levels.
After all these years i thought i would no longer be stressed if i were to ever take part in another contest but that is being as honest as saying our broadband speeds are really as fast as there are advertised.
Today after listening to all the speeches I am truly humbled and filled with awe. The night before I was still tweaking and editing and rewriting portions of my speech till 3 am in the morning. The next morning I was up by 7 rehearsing my body language and vocal inflections.
In the midst of this vigourous preparation I asked myself what is the point of all this pushing?
It was then I heard some inner wisdom.
In the past the winning a contest was all that matter but now
I truly enjoyed the craft and art of being a wordsmith.
I love the sound of the language, the power of its suggestions and the poetry in its silences.
I told myself that if I lost it must ONLY because my preparation efforts paled in comparison to the brilliance of my fellow contestants. And now that the contest is over I sit amazed how great every speech was in its own unique way. So much creativity and enthusiasm poured into the speeches. As a fellow speech maker I could instantly recognise how much thought must have gone into the speech structure, word selection and dramatic flairs.
From Kok Wah's near death experience because of his botak solider to
Learning to be a happier person from Yee Keong
to Adela's remarkable feat of being able to hide all six feet of her self in a paper less than half that
to the message that hit me the most of being a Doer by Seh Leng
I thank every one of my fellow contestants for their brilliant brilliant brilliant efforts. I have learnt so much all of you. In each of your speeches you highlighted a few techniques in speech making that has widen my horizons for the next level of competition.
This a family. A gathering of like minded people. I promise to do my best and deliver the best speech I can.
I would like to Thank my dear fellow contestants, my beloved Grassroots Toastmasters club members, contest officials,my cousin Punitha and her family (subra, divaker, rahulan) for coming to support, visitors, my friend Edison for coming down to encourage me, Jana for helping me the night before to bounce of ideas, Anu for her contributions towards some aspects of the speech. Pam and Leo for praying for me and all everyone out there who made it possible.
As I take a deep breath I am filled with lots of thanks.
After all these years I keep reminding myself not to be consumed by purely the winning but to focus more on the process of doing and learning.
This has been one of the highest standards I have witnessed at a Division Contest in all my life...
thank you for making this day so WONDERFUL!
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