Page 49 - February 2017 Voices

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Toastmasters: a Paradigm Shift

The following clubs are celebrating their charter anniversary this month. by Emilie Taylor, DTM
Congratulations to all!

Emilie delivered this speech at New Horizons Toastmasters in January
2017. She received a standing ovation. It is reprinted here with her permission. [editor]

In 2002 Steven and I were devastated by the during the meeting. That was not my world.
death of our son from Sudden Infant Death Char, one of the members, took me aside after
Syndrome. Losing a child is one of the hardest that meeting, and explained what they did in
things to go through. Sudden Infant Death the club. She was very kind. I felt the loneliness
Syndrome (SIDS) is the worst nightmare a new begin to fade.
parent faces. Some people make it and some don’t. A paradigm shift began after my second visit.
Some marriages make it, and some don’t. I lost It was taking hold of my broken spirit. A shift in
my world, my bearings, my meaning and part of paradigm is a shift in perspective and worldview.
my life. For a long while, I was so angry—dark We are here to change the letters s-c-a-r-e-d to
clouds became my norm. s-a-c-r-e-d—to honor and support one another.
I didn’t remember I had been to a Toastmasters When Toastmasters takes a scared person and
meeting in August 2000, two years before my son makes them sacred, lives change!
died. I thought my only memory of Toastmasters It took me almost three months to peck my
was when Edel, my older brother in Maryland, shell open and deliver my Ice Breaker. My first
mentioned it in the spring of 2013. speech was almost a disaster. I forgot what to
say in the middle of my speech, but members’
supportive and sparkly eyes cheered me on. (I’m
sure it was called the “ice breaker” because I was
scared stiff and frozen with fear!)
Fast forward. While preparing for project
8, “Get Comfortable with Visual Aids,” I looked
for pictures from Edel’s wedding. I looked in all
the places where Steven and I normally stashed
past memories and couldn’t find them.
I discovered they’d been filed in “that” filing
cabinet. The one tucked away in the corner of
the study room. The one we never open. The
one that contained my baby’s hospital records
I’d come home from an extended stay on the from 13 years ago.
east coast with Steven, to take care of the house When I pulled out the “Wedding Pictures”
and bills that had stacked up. One evening I folder, right behind it, was a folder labeled
called Edel and told him how sad and lonely I “Toastmasters.” I was dumbfounded! I began
had become. “Check out Toastmasters,” he said to wonder why “that” folder was in “that” filing
“you will meet people.” I don’t think I’d ever heard cabinet.
of the organization. He mentioned it was about The folder contained an application
public speaking. I Googled “Toastmasters” and for membership I’d filled out in August
found a club nearby. of 2000, a sign-up sheet; an evaluation
It took me another year to visit Milwaukie form; two Toastmasters flyers, and two
Talkies—which became my home club. I joined Toastmasters magazines dated September
despite my reservations about all the clapping 1997 and November 1998. On the back of the

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