Toastmaster Ice Breaker Speech - August 2008

 

Tossing out papers this week I ran up on a copy of my first Toastmaster's speech.  The ice breaker speech is supposed to convey to the other members things about oneself so they can figure out who I am and where I am coming from.

 

My childhood was much like a “Norman Rockwell” painting. 

Or you might say: Extraordinarily ordinary! 

I was born and raised in New England, in the small town 

of Berlin, Massachusetts,

which has 5,200 registered voters and

quaint, white clapboard houses with green shutters

and blazing red and yellow maple trees in the fall.

When I was much younger I used to describe who I was with what I did – legal secretary, office manager, or sales manager.  But, that no longer applies as I have had to re-invent myself every few years in order to advance in the workplace.

Experience has clearly shown me you are not your job title.

So, my occupation is “seasoned professional” – I do what I have to do in order to accomplish what needs to be done to move me toward my goal.

I could stand here and list my pedigree – my college degree, my professional degrees – You might even be impressed – but as my mother used to say:

 “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

It is what is inside of me – that is who I am.

The easiest way to share with you who is in here is to explain how I was raised.

My blue collar father, the plumber, and my legal secretary mother, the diplomat, taught me right from wrong.

My entire childhood and upbringing can be reduced into classical one-liners that most every knows:

 “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

 “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

 “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

 “Make hay while the sun shines.”

 “There is no dumb question except the one you didn’t ask.”

 “Look it up – the dictionary is your best friend.”

 “Common sense is genius dressed in working clothes.”

 AND

“You can’t fail until you try.”

So that you understand a part of my makeup –

I am the youngest of three children,

I have two older brothers. 

My mother was very women’s lib – She was way ahead of her time. 

Once when I was good enough to help build the tree house

down in the woods some 16 feet off the ground

in a cluster of 6 pine trees

and upon completion my two older brothers

barred me from joining in and playing “Fort” - 

My mother stepped in and declared –

“If she was good enough to help build it –

she’s good enough to play in it.”  

 

That encouragement was echoed later

when I was challenged with something I felt I could not do.

Mom would say:

 “You can do anything!”

 “In fact, you can do anything a boy can do, maybe even better!”

 “You can be anything – even the President of the United States!”  

 

When I was a Girl scout,

I worked on a Wildflower Badge with another girl from the neighborhood.  As a team, we scoured the countryside for wildflower specimens.

We pressed flowers and leaves between wax paper,

and created two identical books. 

However, the Troop leader found mine faulty in some way,

and I came home crying. 

I put my hands on my hips and tried to explain to my Father

and all I could blurt out was: “Life ain’t fair.” 

 I was looking for guidance, but I remember his answer:

  “Now that you know that, Daughter, Life will be much easier for you.”

 

I learned that lesson – along with another one of Dad’s favorite sayings:

  “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”

 

As I grew up in that Norman Rockwell environment

 – every day riding a big lumbering yellow bus

to and from school my entire adolescent life

 –the sage advice kept pace with my development.

 

My mother would say:

 “Remember, average is as close to the bottom as it is to the top.”

 “No one can take your education away from you.”

 

Father would say:

 “Only make promises you can keep.”

 “Remember your good name – your reputation is Everything.”

Mother would say:

 “Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want us to read in tomorrow’s paper.”

 

Father would say:

“You sleep with dogs, you'll get fleas.”

 

And, as I got older – Mom would say:

 “All the world is a stage and we are but actors upon it.”

 

And Dad would say:

“You want to be treated like blue jeans – wear blue jeans – you want to be treated like a professional – dress like one.”

 

But, my all-time favorite as I was growing up

was the heated political discussions around the supper table

where I hardly could get in a word in edgewise

between my two older brothers  

was Dad’s classic conclusion to every political debate:

 

 “If you didn’t vote – keep your mouth shut!”

 

In conclusion of my introduction to you –

 I want to share with you some of the words of wisdom

 that I’ve absorbed and embraced and consider as a current explanation of who I am.

 

“Work flows to where it gets done.”

 “Identify the problem, and it is half solved.”

 “She didn’t know it couldn’t be done, so she went ahead and did it.”

 “The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

 “Every job is a self portrait of the person who did it – I autograph my work with quality.

I hope my life will be lived well as in: 

“LIFE should be a PATTERN of EXPERIENCES to SAVOR, 

NOT ENDURE.”