Page 23 - 2018 September Voices

the ability to become a great public speaker

requires that we must do the work from the
inside to build our confidence and self-esteem.
Once we believe that we are okay, then we can
face the challenge of standing up and speaking

out buttressed by techniques of good speech
craft. The combination of a belief in ourselves
and a belief in our speech material helps us to
be ready to be heard, ready to face the audience,

and believe we are good enough!
As a Rotarian, a student of the French
language, and with my speaking seminar
schooling at Dale Carnegie, I started to feel

equipped to flex my speech wings. Why not, en français if I would like to introduce myself.
I thought, why not go as a guest Rotarian to a Again, what a great opportunity lofted in my
Rotary Club in the heart of Paris? I found an direction, but what was I going to do with the
evening Rotary Club that met directly across the public speaking challenge laid out in front of me?

street from the Musée du Louvre, at the five-star Questions were running through my mind
Hôtel Régina. a mile a minute. Am I good enough? Will the
When I signed in as a guest Rotarian at my French Rotarians understand me? Will I make
first Paris Rotary meeting, I was asked if I would lots of mistakes? Will they laugh at me? Will I

introduce myself. At this Rotary meeting in the be really good enough?
Hôtel Regina, I was wowed by the ambiance. Et voilà, when asked, I gathered my strength
As a guest, I anticipated that I would be called to seize the moment and squirted up on my feet
upon for some Rotary discussion, and I sensed to introduce myself. I’d made my decision, which

with the Rotary Club officers scurrying around would sculpt a better life for me and for my two
that their program speaker for the day was a sons. I had been living with quiet thoughts in
no-show. They were a speaker short, so I knew I my head for years, that if I didn’t find my voice,
was going to be given the opportunity to speak. there was a chance my two sons wouldn’t find

My gut was talking to me. What do I do with this theirs either.
once-in-a-lifetime chance? Knowing full well One day as I looked ahead to the end of my
that I was not someone who got up to speak in days, I was determined that I’m not “goin’ ta”
public, no less in French . . . and if I didn’t go for wish, and regret that I woulda, coulda, shoulda

it, speaking in French, I would live with a huge developed the courage to learn how to get on
regret. My heart, my pulse was racing. After the my feet and deliver a speech in English . . . and
club president hit the gavel to open the meeting, no less in French.
and completed the opening ritual, I was asked The Rotary meeting hall was full of Rotarians

VOICES! | SEPTEMBER 2018 23