Ice Breaker - Toastmasters Speech 1

It is probably an old story now. I am officially a member of Truckee Meadows Toastmasters club in Reno. It has been a fun experience so far.

Last month, was my turn to present my first speech at the Toastmasters club. The first speech is an Ice Breaker. It is a way to introduce you to the club members which in turn opens up a comfort level.

I thought long and hard about what I want to talk to introduce myself. How and what exactly do you tell about yourself in 4-6 minutes? I thought about my birthplace, my family, and my friends. But till this date, the greatest influence in my life has been the books I have read. I have very often been the book I have read. And as I look through my life, I see that time and again, my attitude towards life has been greatly influenced by the books I have read.
The thought occurred to me... I should talk about the books that have influenced me the most and how. With that in mind, I prepared a speech. Here is it...

Speech 1- Ice Breaker (4-6 minutes)

READ ME
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Good Morning Fellow Toastmasters and guests

Opening -
I vividly remember reading a story called "Games at Twilight" when i was about 13 yrs old ... the story was about a boy who plays hide and seek with his friends, and by the end of it finds out that his friends did not remember to look for him. That they had moved on to play another game while he was hiding and waiting. He was silenced by the terrible sense of his insignificance.

Now that literary work, my friends, gave me about 6 yrs of depression every time the sunsets... first time a book influenced me without my knowledge.

There is a Proverb - “Tell me what you read, and I will tell you who you are”. That is what I am going to do today.
It’s interesting because in a way, you are giving away too much about yourself and in a way you still hold some mystery.

Body -
The past 28 years of my life can be divided in 4 phases, the 4 phases running both exclusively, inclusively, in parallel - big mess!

Phase 1 - I am better than everyone else

This is the final novel written by philosopher and author Ayn Rand. It is considered the second most influential book after the Bible. Mind bending!
It is a complex combination of mystery, love story, social criticism, and philosophy, and a celebration of individualism, free will, capitalism, logic, and reason.
I am fortunate because it’s one of the greatest books I will ever read.

By the end of reading this book, I had the least tolerance to mediocrity; I began to imagine that I belonged to the group of ideal characters in the book. Not fun!
It took me few years of reading more books and meeting some wonderful people, before I realized that I am really not that great. I am a very mediocre person.
But this book was the one that taught me that I should not be ok with it. Hence I strive every day, learn more, to be better.

Phase 2 - Simplicity is so easy, yet so difficult

Whenever I find life complicated, I always re-read this one book. It is a timeless, simple, wonderful classic.
This simple yet powerful book made me realized that we almost always know what the right thing to do is, but for some humanly reasons, we don't do it.

Right after my grandfather, Atticus Finch is my role model. I always wanted to grow up and be like him and do things with great integrity.
And I also learnt that you do not have to be loud to be a strong person. It also has taught me not to be judgmental about things and people.
It has influenced me very strongly on how I handle everyday situations.

Phase 3 - "It’s a magical world - Let's go exploring"

Once i turned 18, I did something that every adult should do - Start reading comics. It is my favorite, most cherished comic.
Humor to me is very important in my life. We are so engrossed in daily activities that we overlook obvious things, don’t observe, think of trivial things in life and find humor in them.
Every time I read this, I consciously decide to be youthful, silly and to not take myself too seriously... no matter how old I grow.
It is a necessity in my life - to read and laugh to Calvin and Hobbes.

Phase 4 - "up to taking up some challenges"

I am going through some challenging times and sadly the present-tense situation is that I am reading "Lord of the Rings".
There is something about the world confronting the dark times and some people set out there to, to save the world.
Intriguing... especially from my perspective where my day is taken up by the crucial decisions like what shoes to wear, should I eat for lunch, who should i vote for in American Idol and so on. To me these larger than life books, much needed big picture about life and invoke most profound thoughts like "What if I were an Elf..." :)

I have owned this book for 4yrs and had many attempts at reading it. May be once I finish this book, I can see how it ends up influencing me. But for now all you are going to know about me is that I am a slow reader.

Conclusion -

I feel really blessed to have discovered some wonderful books and looking forward to a life time of reading.
I have obviously discussed about these books and thoughts about them to some of my friends in the past.
Almost always sigh in relief and tell me "Thank God! That explains everything..."

Thank you.

Disclaimer - Please do not judge these books based on how I turned out :) I believe that no two people read the same book the same way.
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To present this speech, I took with me the books I spoke about. I thought that visual display of the books was very important for the audience to relate to the subject. When i started speaking, I did not stick to the exact words written on my paper. I did not want to sound like I memorized the speech. I thought it should be natural, especially when the topic is you. It was fun!