Extemporaneously Speaking - I Won a Table Topics Contest!

Today officially makes one week. "One week for what?," you're probably thinking. Well, hold tight and I'll tell you. One week ago, today, I competed in the District 30 Chicagoland Toastmasters Spring 2010 Table Topics contest and won first place. Yep, that's right, I am now recognized as the "Table Topics Champ" for 2010.

It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. My journey to victory started back in October 2009 when I had to compete in a total of four Table Topics contests, including Club (Wrightwood-Ashburn Overcomers (WAO) Toastmasters, #771880), Area (S52), Division (South), and District (30).

At each contest, I had to deliver a two-minute, extemporaneous speech on a random topic selected specifically for the contest. You heard me right, I could not prepare a speech because I did not know the topic until that day!(I heard that and you're right, it was a little scary). The most challenging part of all contests for me was listening very closely to the question (which was repeated twice) and coming up with an engaging and coherent two-minute response, "on-the-fly," that met the requirements of the judges.

I am proud to say that I did it - all four times! I am ecstatic with myself that I was able to succeed at fulfilling this goal because as some of you may recall, last year, I decided to take my speaking skills and Toastmasters participation to the next level by experiencing speech contests. This makes the second out of four speech contests I've competed in and won. I now have two more to go.

Thank you to my Toastmasters family, especially the members of my home club, WAO (WAy-Oh), for inspiring, encouraging, supporting, coaching, and mentoring me to a first place victory. I could not have done it without you.

For all of you that have asked to see footage from my first contest where I placed second in the South Division 2009 Humorous Speech Contest, feel free to watch the video below to see me in action.

Let me know what you think.

Enjoy.