Celebrating Toastmasters

I have spent more than 20,000 hours speaking in front of high school and university classes. I’ve given more than a hundred speeches in Toastmasters; 30 of them high-pressure contest speeches.  I have spoken in English and I’ve spoken in Japanese – English is easier. I’ve spoken to industry association meetings and Christmas parties, young entrepreneurs and C-level executives.

And yesterday, I gave one of the most important and challenging speeches of my life.

I spoke at a wedding reception.

Wedding speeches are often rambling, boozy affairs, full of bad jokes and inappropriate stories, but not this one. This was the wedding of a former student, a young women I began teaching when she was ten years old. Over the nearly fifteen years since, I’ve taught her and her entire family at various times.

I’ve watched Eri-chan grow from a cute little girl to a beautiful, charming young woman, fluent in Japanese and English, and now living in Shanghai, China and studying Chinese.

I’m so proud of her and I wanted my speech to reflect that, so I took it as seriously as a major contest speech, mixing Japanese and English for the sake of the guests who wouldn’t understand one or the other.

When I stepped up to the microphone, in front of more than 200 guests, in the luxurious ballroom at Chinzan-so, I knew how to give a speech that expressed my feelings clearly, powerfully and honestly.

As I sat at my table waiting for my turn to speak, I was extremely nervous. And yet, because of my Toastmasters training I knew that was normal, so I didn’t allow it to paralyze me. I turned that energy into power and focus.

I am far from fluent in Japanese, but because of the opportunities I’ve had to speak in Japanese at my bilingual Toastmasters club, I knew that I could pull it off, and I did; by all accounts, flawlessly.

My feelings about Eri-chan were complex and emotional, yet through Toastmasters I have learned to take a complex issue, find the central narrative line and then use it to weave story and fact together. I knew to structure my entire message around a simple and repeated theme; that we were there to celebrate this young couple.

My emotions nearly overtook me as I looked at this radiant young woman, no longer a girl, stunning in her white wedding gown, but Toastmasters has taught me how to keep my composure, not by suppressing my feelings, but by expressing them.

In Toastmasters, I have learned to project my voice and enunciate my words. I’ve learned to use vocal tone, intonation and pause to emphasize and define my meaning. I’ve learned to stand tall and stay calm. Through speech after speech, it has become as natural as breathing.

So when I stepped up to the microphone, I didn’t have to think about any of it. I could focus on my feelings for this beautiful, young bride. I could speak from my heart, knowing that I had the skills to convey my thoughts and feelings to the audience.

And for that, I celebrate Toastmasters.