Almost halfway through the countdown now and we are talking about some of the fun Toastmasters events that I attended this year. Even as I was working at Giant Eagle and didn’t have weekends off, I was still making time to attend the club officer trainings. I don’t have as much time to attend the division contests in person so I do what I can. Next year, I will attend my first in person conference in five years.
Every event that I attended in 2023 was special in a way, and I got to meet some new people. With me accepting the presidential nomination for Greensburg, Summer TLI was one event that I was looking forward to attending.
In June, I attended club officer training and all my officers showed up in person and online. We had great attendance for the event. While I learned a lot from the event, a lot of crazy things occurred in my life leading up to the big day. Aside from Benny’s four month long hospital stay and the haze from the Canadian wildfires, I was questioning things once again in my fashion journey. This time it was Dylan Mulvaney and the Bud Light controversy. It didn’t help that some of the biggest right wing voices in the world said a lot of nasty shit either. I was ready to give up and almost got rid of a lot of my wardrobe but in the eleventh hour I went back. I rocked a nice outfit and a scarf and one of my Coach purses and enjoyed myself. My Toastmasters friends Dana and Cassie encouraged me not to change for anyone and praised me for breaking status quo.
A few days later, I took advantage of Meetup (which I learned about that same morning) and attended the tenth anniversary of Cranberry High Noon Toastmasters, which was a lot of fun.
The Fall Symposium was one that I attended out of pure luck. I didn’t sign up until I saw my schedule the week before the event and, everything was in my favor. I learned about humor with one of our own members in the Greensburg club, and our Toastmasters won awards for their hard work and dedication throughout the Toastmaster year. We had a group photo taken of all the Distinguished Toastmasters in District 13
Last week’s TLI was as good as the summer event. I got to meet some new Toastmasters from the Johnstown club as well as a few I already knew. Biggest takeaway involved some of the points our speaker talked about in his presentation on the Growth Mindset. I attended a different club officer breakout, though I kind of wish I sat in on the Presidents’ training again. We ended the day by watching some of our most decorated Toastmasters show off some of their talents. Two of our members sang karaoke to Love Shack by the B-52’s, and our Johnstown members reenacted a play. We also had a Zumba workout. I got encouragement on my fashion journey from Sandi, Rachel, and Barb of the Johnstown club. I also found out that Barb and I have ties to the Hiram G. Andrews Center, and she made Johnstown Magazine’s list of Most Influential People of the Year for 2023.
After the holidays, contest season will be in full swing and we’ll get to hear District 13’s best.
Stylish 🍒 