HubSpot's Toastmasters - The Ice Breaker Speech
This summer HubSpot formed a Toastmaster's Club. The idea is that we all become 'Competent Communicatiors'... over time. Each week club members either give a 5-7 minute speech or they can participate in one of the leadership roles. The first speech you give is the Ice breaker speech. In this speech you are tasked with talking about yourself. Check out my Ice breaker speech below.
My Post-Graduation Plan - Option C
Upon graduating from college I was presented with an exit survey. The survey asked me about my post-graduation plan. I assume these surveys are set up so that parents paying for college can feel confident that their child will not get ‘lost’ post-graduation.
Maybe you took something similar? For the question What you will be doing post-graduation? I was given the following options: A. Professional job B. Graduate School… I wasn't planning on doing either of those. I quickly scribbled into the survey C. Other. Shouldn’t there always be an Option C?
Option C took me out of the country on a 4 year trip around the world. Days after the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed I found myself on a plane to the South Pacific stopping in the Cook Island and then onto the island of Fiji. I spent 6 weeks between those two islands thinking about how I would make Option C possible.
I left the lazy island life with an Australian work holiday visa in hand. I found myself selling, door to door, bundled broadband internet, TV, and telephone packages around the suburbs of Sydney. It was here on the lonely doorsteps of a home that I saw the ugly side of Option C. A man opened the door heard my accent and told me, without any hesitation, he thought America had the events of 9/11 coming to them. He slammed the door. I suddenly felt alone and that Option C was the wrong choice.
I worked my way around the country of Australia. After the door to door sales job I kept to working in bars and on farms. In the end Option C, Australia, turned around and proved to be one of the most amazing and inspiring years of my life.
Australia kicked me out after my visa expired and I moved onto New Zealand. Here I worked WWOOFing for an organization called World Wild Opportunites on Organic Farms. This is a program for travelers where they work 4hrs a day and get free accommodation and food. I was able to see all of New Zealand as a WWOOFer, but it didn't help me out financially. However, it was here that I heard about teaching in Asia and its cash making possibilities.
Option C put me on a flight to South Korea with a job in an English language school. Funny enough, no one actually spoke English at the school and I obviously didn't speak Korean. I quickly became a master at charades. I thought I knew what reverse culture shock felt like, but I hadn't until South Korea. Standing in front of a classroom of screaming Korean children and not knowing how to tell them to SHUT UP is humbling. I taught at this school for a year and picked up private tutoring as well. I ended up having my own private tutoring business and quit teaching at the school. Option C, South Korea, gave me a new language and a keen sense of confidence.
After Korea I wanted to see more of Asia. So I did.
I went to India and hiked in the Himalayas, went surfing in Sri Lanka, deep sea diving in Malaysia, climbed the Great Wall in China, went to my first midget bar in the Philippines, was too dumb for Vietnam, was awestruck by Angkor Wat in Cambodia, watched saffron-robed monks pray in Laos, and attended the Full Moon beach party in Thailand. Option C, Asia, gave me a history, geography, and anthropology lesson second to none.
Tolkien wrote, 'Not all who wander are lost'. Option C helped ME to find MY way back home the long way.
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