MY TOASTMASTERS JOURNEY

I am a person with so many great ideas in my head but could not express these clearly in speech. I perfectly expressed myself in writing than speaking. This meant that I was among the many people in the world with Glass phobia. Gloss phobia, or a fear of public speaking, is a very common phobia and one that is believed to affect up to 75% of the population. But to this date I must say I am slowly leaving the 75% and crossing over to the 25%.

A friend of mine had told me about joining toastmasters since 2019 so that I can horn my public speaking skills and I have been procrastinating since then. I ended up just attending the club meeting as a guest but with no access to learning material.
So to overcome my fear of public speech, I decided to fully join Kampala Sunrise Toastmasters club after too much procrastination so that I can grow my leadership and public speaking skills. For those wondering what Toastmasters is, Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs.

When one joins TM, their very first speech is usually the Icebreaker Speech where you introduce yourself to the TM members and guests. You can give this speech whenever you are ready and members can evaluate and give feedback.
The anxiety I had towards the meeting day cannot be explained but after the speech, I breathed a sigh of relief. I felt like a burden has been taken off me, I felt much better and I look forward to more speeches on my Toastmasters journey.

Prior to giving my first speech in the club, I had taken on the timer role several times and this month I was challenged by our Vice President Education to take on the Toastmaster role. The main duty of the Toastmaster is to act as genial host and conduct the entire program, including introducing participants and distributing awards. Taking on this role improves organization skills, time management and facilitation. You are also advised to come up with the meeting theme and encourage members to give speeches that align with the meeting theme.
As compared to the ice breaker speech, I no longer had stage fright when I took on the Toastmaster role. The only challenge I had was fear for a 2-hour meeting taking only 40 minutes or less, me being a fast speaker. But I managed to host the meeting for up to 2 hours. Great achievement. Right?

The meetings are still mainly online but I look forward to the physical meetings that will be starting next month. I will also give my second level 1 speech which is ‘Writing a speech with Purpose’ and I will surely come back here to tell about my growth
It is 2022 and It has been two months since Join Toastmasters and I am glad I finally decided to join the best club in Uganda. I am honestly very proud of myself and I look forward to more growth.

Toastmasters is such a safe place for anyone looking to grow in the direction of leadership and communication and therefore I highly recommend.