Project 3. Ever after

«Challenge is what makes you develop» thought I leaving my first ATC meeting. As a person who finds writing task the most difficult in IELTS and hates speaking in front of unknown people, I decided to become a member of the Toastmasters Club. 💪🏼

I’ve learned about ATC thanks to my friend Aigerim Seitenova who invited me to the meeting in December. 

Well, first of all I wanted to have fun (that’s why my very first speech started with «I know I’m super hot and unbelievably beautiful»). 😜

Secondly, it is always a struggle for me to sit down and start writing because I need some coffee, particular mood, particular atmosphere, particular weather and etc. Therefore the theme should truly interest me so that I can prepare a good speech.✊🏼

Luckily, Zhanna Kussainova agreed to be my mentor from the very beginning of my Toastmasters journey. She gave me more or less clear understanding of how to prepare a speech correctly, and I am grateful for that. Moreover, Zhanna always supported my creepy ideas and themes I wanted to talk about. The same was with my Project #3, which was called «Ever After». 

So, my third speech was about how to maintain love in marriage. At the beginning I was planning to talk about trust, but something went wrong. I wanted my speech to be related to relationships, and I picked this topic because I translated a series of seminars related to marriage. 💏

A year ago I translated a course related to family values. I found the topics and the theme in whole relevant for our society because of low education level and high divorce rate. So, when preparing for my third speech, I decided to use the gained knowledge. Frankly speaking, I had some doubts regarding sexual topic, but then I thought hey!

We live in a democratic state, and we HAVE TO start speaking freely on sex and any other “prohibited” theme.

I learned the text by heart, I rehearsed many times, and when the day X finally came I..totally forgot what to talk about. The speech just slipped my mind! Moreover, at the meeting there were guys under 18, which made me feel confused because one of my subtopics was SEX. It is not worth saying that I was two times more stressed than I usually am.😫

Fortunately, Zhanna was there to help me. She tried to calm me down with the words “It is okay if you fail, you can easily redo the Project #3”. Then, she proposed me to write some notes and keep them just in case. This piece of advice definitely added some confidence. So when I took the floor I could give a smile and start the speech.

There definitely was a room for improvement. I definitely made mistakes. I definitely could do better. But it is not so easy to talk on such topics as sex, eh?Especially in our society because many people can find it inappropriate. 

The only advice I would give to those guys who want to touch on a theme like mine is to be confident and keep calm.😌