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COVER STORY









                 The Contestant Diaries:

                 Confessions and Lessons


                 Learned



                 Jennifer Schmidt, EH1





                        January 23, 2021 - New Horizons Toastmasters
                        Club Contest: Starting the Journey

                            It’s New Horizons club contest day! I feel a combination
                        of anticipation and nervousness, with butterflies doing

                        aerial maneuvers in my stomach. But how’s this possible?
                        After all, I’m safely in my home staring into a tablet with
                        multiple zoom boxes showing little snippets of people’s lives.
                        Greeted by all the smiling faces who are either getting ready

                        to compete, volunteer, or be part of the cheering section.
                            It was our first doubleheader virtual Evaluation and
                        International Speech Contest. I was preparing to do both and
                        found this experience vastly different from last January when

                        I competed in person. How I missed that three-dimensional
                        feeling when I could see the facial expressions of everyone
                        sitting in the audience. I enjoy that personal connection.
                        Now, I wished I would have savored that experience a little

                        more. With fingers crossed, I waited and hoped the internet
                        gremlins wouldn’t attack.
                            First up, the Evaluation Contest. I listened to the target
                        speaker, got my turn to evaluate, but then a gremlin attacked!

                        I had a glitch with my sound! I got thrown off, wa-a-a-ay
                        off, like a spooked horse running in all directions. I was
                        stammering. Ugh! The entire time I knew this evaluation
                        was an epic fail. Relief only came when the green light

                        appeared and I could stop the torture. I placed fourth out of










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