Dickinson on aging
"Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought." Emily Dickinson
Threw my hat into the ring at my Toastmaster club's spring contest this morning and came away a winner in both Evaluation and International Speech. I feel pretty secure in evaluation, but know my speech needs a lot of work before I go to the area contest at the end of the month. I was struggling with writing, not exactly a block. No matter what I started drafting, I found myself trying to turn it towards politics and the financial crisis. I'm not surprised that those issues are so much in the forefront of my thoughts, but I am surprised at how much anger I felt. I didn't want the speech to turn into an ill-informed rant and I fear I just forced some ideas into a speech framework without nearly the support they needed. I will have to spend a lot of time filling in the details, sharpening the argument, and refining the delivery. It's work I will enjoy.