I have already completed my Competent Communicator program, and now I am a beginner in the Pathways system. Pathways is an online platform that provides interactive content and tools to develop leadership and communicational skills.
I will be publishing my speeches here. I hope you enjoy them.
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Project 1: "THE ICE-BREAKER"
Title: "Inside Out"
Good evening, fellow Toastmasters and guests,
It is with great pleasure that I stand on this stage to deliver my Ice-Breaker once again. My first Ice-Breaker was entitled “Memories” and it focused on three key memories that I thought had helped me grow into the person I was at that time. But although it has only been a year and a few months since then, I feel like I have changed so much. Hence, I decided it was better to prepare a different speech, although the subject is the same: me.
Let me ask: How many of you have watched Disney Pixar’s movie “Inside Out”?
Well, in that movie we are able to go inside the mind of a teenage girl. Many of you may think that I’m a very extroverted and outgoing person, but in reality there goes a lot more in my mind that what you can see. So come with me into the crazy world inside Valentina’s mind...
Just like in “Inside Out” there is a main control center led by my emotions. There is sadness, joy, fear, disgust and anger. Looking through my life, I think my control center has been mainly led by happiness, but there is also a lot of fear. Fear of missing out, fear of getting “old”…and not in the sense of ageing, but in the sense of getting stuck in life and not going after my dreams. I have such a big fear of getting into the comfort zone, which is so dangerous, because it is so…well, comfy. So I always try to push myself into trying new things. Meeting new people. Visiting new places. Learning new languages.
So now, let’s talk about the “personality islands”. In the movie, these are the pillars that define your personality. I think in my case there are three main pillars: Family, Friendship and Languages.
Family is one of my core values. I just can’t think of any time in my life in which I didn’t have the full support of my family. Even at some very hard times, when I was planning to leave Chile, and although everyone was sad of seeing me go, they all contributed in everything they could. Now I have a new family, with my husband. It’s been hard cutting the umbilical cord, but now I feel more used to it. I come from a huge and very close family. My husband comes from a smaller and not so attached family. But now we have the opportunity to build our own family, just the way we want it, with all the seasonings we choose. It’s going to be very special, with a mix of Chilean and Brazilian spices. By the way, just in case you were wondering, no…I’m not pregnant. But I want to have children, in the future.
In the second place I chose friendship, as my second pillar. I have many acquaintances all around the world, I lost count on how many different nationalities. I specifically said “acquaintances” because you can know many people but, are they really your friends? I have very few friends, to be honest, but they are GREAT friends. I know I can always count on them. They have been there with me in the good and the bad times, and for me that’s the biggest proof of a true friendship. Especially in the bad times.
And last, but not least, I chose languages as the third pillar of my personality. Why languages? Well, I didn't choose "work" as one of my pillars because if you choose a job you love, you don't have to work a day in your life. Languages are my passion. It is what I do every single day, and I love it. Teaching languages and learning languages. This is actually how I’ve met most of my friends. It is the way I earn my living. It is what brought me here in the first place. To deliver, once again, a short introduction about myself trying to improve my communication skills.
As I said. I am not the same person who presented her ice-breaker a year ago. One year ago I talked about my memories, memories I had lived once upon a time in a far away land called Chile. I was so nostalgic, so melancholic. But today I prefer to live in the present. I am not “the Chilean girl” anymore. I am a new creature, a combination of what I brought with me from Chile, my foundations, and what I have built here in Brazil. I am a collection of memories and emotions, that are constantly changing and evolving, always working on self-improvement.
It’s been a long journey, and it has been totally worth it. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you liked this short trip inside my head.
This is my story. This is me, inside out.
