I gave my first ToastMasters Speech yesterday. Here is the text of the speech – clocked at a few seconds under five minutes.
Mr. Toastmaster, Fellow Toasties/Toasters:
I spent my first 5 yrs out of high school, going to college, with the end result being NOT a college degree, but rather flunking or withdrawing from half of the classes I had taken.
That’s right, for every two classes I took, I only passed one of them.
My dream in high school was to become an architect.
As I was learning my draftsman skill set, I wasn’t aware that being an architect required ‘artistic’ skills as well.
My classes that first year in college were oriented toward artistic skills, that is: free-hand drawing, painting, building 3d objects, etc.
The instructors didn’t care whether or not I knew how to draw a straight line with a t-square and a triangle!
My second year, I fell back to “Plan B”, changing majors to Computer Science.
Unfortunately, my study habits remained the same, and including both majors, I passed only 23 classes out of 39.
At this point, after figuring out I was burning my “savings”, I took some time off from college.
Around the same time, I was fortunate to receive a promotion at work.
After a few years, my manager informed me that I needed to get motivated and go back to school and get my degree.
You see, I was now a so-called “professional”, and the job description required a college degree.
So, I attempted college a 3rd time.
This time, I was a bit more successful, completing 17 classes in about 18 months, without any flunking or withdrawing.
This 3rd effort earned my Bachelors of Science in Information Systems degree about ten years after high school.
[I’ve always been a late bloomer!]
Shortly following graduation, I started a new job, and met a co-worker who would become my BFF.
Kelsey and I’ve been friends now for 25 years.
After meeting him, I attended a graduation ceremony where he received his master’s degree.
This inspired me to set a goal of getting my master’s degree someday.
That was 1991.
Even though I was inspired, months went by, years went by, and finally 2 decades had flown by…
And still, I never enrolled into any master’s program.
My excuse: too busy, too tired, etc., along with being scared of flunking out.
That was, until last August, when I realized the stars had finally aligned, and the time was right.
I threw caution to the wind, and applied to enroll for the fall term at Saint Thomas – only 2 weeks past the application enrollment deadline for the fall semester.
Fortunately, the gods smiled upon me, and approved my enrollment application.
I’m in my second semester of classes, and feeling great about my decision and progress.
I only have 8 more courses to take, with an estimated graduation date of 2015 – This should keep me off the streets for quite a while.
Earlier, I mentioned not having any artistic skills…when I was a youngster.
Now, being a lot older, and having much more self-confidence, I decided to try painting, and painted my first Bob Ross style painting.
Well, it was the most god-awful thing.
No, just kidding, it actually came out pretty well, and I’m very proud of it!
