Page 8 - voices-2023-05

COVER STORY
son delivered his first public speech! The lady
who sat next to me said, “What a small world.
My fellow Toastmaster’s daughter is attending
this school too.”
I got very interested in what Toastmasters was
all about and she gave me a link for the next West
Beaverton Toastmasters club meeting! After the
very first visit I knew I found what I was looking
for, that my passion to speak freely, to possess all
language skills naturally was met with the right
environment of Toastmasters!
Your Speech topic —what prompted you to choose
the one you did?
Initially, I was working on a speech titled Who
is the most important person in your life? for this
contest. It was almost ready when it struck me
that it had been a year since the war began and
I wasn’t able to think about anything else. All of
the emotions and thoughts that I wasn’t able to
deal with a year ago came to me again and the
song Russians was the soundtrack that seemed to
surround me.
My main rule for choosing a topic for my
speeches is “Write about what you care about the
most,” and it became obvious right away what the
topic for this particular speech should have been.
People always want to know how you prepared for
the District contest – do you have a special routine
you follow, certain lucky socks you wear or something
8 ONE COMMUNITY
like that?
I don’t have a particular routine or a lucky
charm but I have a checklist to follow before
each performance. This checklist is based on
real events of a huge struggle!
• Reboot the router
• Restart your computer (at least 2 hours
before the contest begins)
• Keep your dog away from the door
• Turn off the door bell
• Silence your phone or any other devices
with audible notifications
• Turn off all apps with notifications on
your computer
• Keep your hair away from your mic
Your audio was really clean and crisp. What
information can you share about preparing to
speak virtually?
Thank you for your feedback on my audio.
It is very important to me to have high-quality
audio, video, lighting, and background because
no matter how great the speech is technical
issues and unwanted distractions can ruin it.
I really recommend getting as much feedback
as you can on your audio, video, Internet
connection, and background. And do as many
tech checks as our superior Zoom Master Ellen
Ino will let you!
Back to the biographical info—married? Kids?