In a past post, I touched upon the fact that I have been attending Toastmasters meetings and since that post, I have become an official member of Leadership Toastmasters in Shanghai. For my initiation, I had to give a 100 second speech on my understanding of positive change and surprise, surprise I spoke about this girl named Ellie whom I met a little over a year ago and taught me all about positive change.
Not going to lie, part of the reason that I go to Toastmasters is because I love the feeling of being the youngest person in the group and then being complimented for my maturity. Standing at the front of the room as the youngest member by eight plus years and looking the part in my T-shirt, jeans and Feiyue shoes, I still manage to capture their attention and awe. It is quite the confidence booster to see the audience nodding along in their suits and dress shoes as I talk about a topic like “whether your dream girl would make the perfect wife,” which should be far beyond my years of experience. To hear compliments about my impromptu speech and surprise over how old I am is just icing on the cake.
Two weeks after joining, I gave my first speech, which I would like to share because it describes me pretty well. The speech was well received, in fact my evaluator told the club that the speech was “awesome” and that he could not think of anything I could improve on. However, after a three years in speech and debate, I know better. The speech was mediocre at best.
-muffinman
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About a boy
I think by now everybody has a rough idea about how old I am, since Ken makes it a point to introduce me to all of you as “our first member who was born in the 90’s.” And because of my young age I have the luxury of being able to fit in all my dreams in a four to six minute speech. So without further ado, let me tell you about a boy who had many dreams which made him who he is today.
When I was young, or rather younger I had the sort of dreams every young boy has, ones filled with adventure and heroics. This was probably the result of being fed a steady diet of adventure novels. My head was filled with explorers in foreign lands and soldiers fighting for glory on the battlefields. I wanted to be one those of people that people wrote stories about.
As I got older naturally my dreams changed. Being a fairly antisocial child, popularity and friends became more of a priority. In addition, I began to realize the uniqueness of my background and briefly flirted with the idea of becoming a travel journalist. Always the geek, I loved my computers and following my father’s footsteps into engineering seemed like a great idea. However, that soon changed when I took art classes and got in touch with my creative side. Combining my longstanding geekyness and new interest in art, I started dreaming about being a game designer.
In high school, many of my dreams got killed outright when I realized that, I was terrible at math and art. Trying to find new passions, I got involved in politics and business where I learned to love people. During my last year in high school I discovered Elva and her coffee shop and soon developed a love for coffee and cafes. Entering college, I knew I loved two things, people and coffee. Loves which still exist today.
Looking back, I realize now that who I am can be traced back those dreams I used to have. I still aspire to be recklessly brave and adventurous like those heroes in my childhood books, leading me into all sorts of troubles like falling through a roof. Popularity and legacy still matter a great deal, but not as much as having strong roots and connections wherever I am, which is what keeps me coming back to Toastmasters week after week. I can still be found tearing apart my computer and firing up Photoshop every once in a while to get back in touch with my artsy side.
As for current dreams, every time I step foot in a café I just imagine the day when I can retire early and open my own café so that I can talk to all the people I want over a nice cup of coffee. However, my dreams are always subject to change and as you all keep reminding me, I am young and still have time.
