"I agree with Forrest Gump!"

This week on the Today show, there was a segment about these FL teens beating up on another teen (could have been a one-time friend). Personally, I thought it was brutal. This teen will now have to deal with hearing loss in one ear; possible vision loss ( not sure if it's temporary or permanent at this point); and who knows what other injuries she may have to live with when it's all said and done. The segment explained that the young lady blasted these "friends" on Youtube and this was their retribution for the mean remarks. Now, I did not read her remarks, so I cannot comment. However, there is nothing that anyone can say about me (true or false) that would make me want to endanger my own lifestyle (i.e. freedom from prosecution) or anger me that I'd want to go a few rounds with them. Life is entirely too short to waste it on drama. As Forrest Gump said so eloquently, "and that's all I have to say about that."

Award Winning Speaker!

You know, most people would take their 3rd place trophy in defeat and put it in an obscure place and hope that they do better the next time.

Well, not me! I am happy to display my 3rd place trophy. I've come a long way in 3 years. I absolutely disliked speaking in public. I would do anything not to speak in public. It was so obvious, the tremor in my voice. I even believe my face betrayed me.

Today? I am still nervous before a speech. But it is not a reason to not get up and speak. I realize that 9 of 10 speakers still have butterflies, jitters and nervousness before a speech. A wise person once said, "courage is not the absence of fear. It is moving forward in spite of it." I understand that now. Besides, I've also realized what "fear" really is:

F- false
E- evidence
A- appearing
R- real

You may stumble over your words from time to time; you may feel butterfiles in your belly; you may even forget part of your speech; worst of all: your hair (that you paid handsomely for) may fall onto the floor in the middle of your speech, but it is not life-threatening. It is life. And life is meant to be lived. Not tolerated, not survived, not endured. Lived and lived to its fullest. This I work on each day. Living.

So here it is, in all it's glory:


Why the yarn? It is competing with the knitting. There may sometimes be a contest scheduled during my normal knitting night with my friends; it competes with knitting when I have a speech that has to be written for my normal meeting so that I can advance my speaking skills ( I am currently working on my advanced designation). My dream?

1. To become a professional speaker (yes, I want to be paid to speak). This is important to me because I want to use that money to help others. In the right venue, you can make a fair amount of money. I will be able to have wells dug in the countries I visit where I see the need--clean drinking water is something I think many of us take for granted.
2. To win the International world champion of speakers award. It is the highest award that you can win as a speaker in Toastmasters. It means you go to the annual International Convention and you've won numerous other contests to get there (this year it's being held in Calgary, Alberta CANADA). I would absolutely like to take this from dream status to goal status to reality. Hmmm.

The tag line? I've decided in order to become what I want, I should look at myself as I want to be seen by others. Technically, I am an award winning speaker. Now, did I say contest wining? No. So, I haven't lied, now have I? Aaah, that poetic license. Beautiful. It is all about marketing oneself.

Enough dreaming for now. I actually have a very long to-do list today.