Page 7 - Voices-2021-05

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

VOICES! | MAY 2021 7