On Feb 27th, my Toastmasters home
club held the International Speech contest as well as the Evaluation contest. Normally,
I’m pretty good with getting a draft ready and keeping enough time for
preparation. I have always believed that it doesn’t matter if I win/lose or if
my speech is far from perfect. I don’t want people to say that I wasn’t
prepared…I will always respect the time of my evaluators and the
audience.
But this time something was
different. For some reason, I was struggling to pen down any thoughts for my
speech. I knew what I wanted to talk about, but it took forever to put my idea
on paper. It was almost as if I had severe writer’s block…it felt like I was having an
internal battle. I had butterflies in my stomach the day before and couldn’t
sleep much that night. Fortunately, the judges liked my speech and I won both
categories. YAY!!
I have watched a ton of YouTube
videos of past champions and speakers. Almost every one of them has mentioned
that before you embark on a journey towards becoming the World Champion of
Public Speaking, you should really THINK. Think about the WHY. Why do you want
to do this? Why do you want to participate in the contests? Is it the fame or
recognition that attracts you? Is it the adrenaline rush of speaking in front
of a large audience?
I have thought about my ‘why’ for
a long time and have come up with two reasons. Firstly, I feel that I should
share my story with people. You never know how or who your story can impact. Maybe it will make a difference in someone's life. More
importantly, I am one of the few people from my country that are part of a
district and can participate in speech contests. I do feel a responsibility to
represent Nepal in the world arena and get some visibility for the Toastmasters
movement there.
Wish me luck for the next rung of
the contests!
