For many years, Toastmasters conferences and Slippery Rock homecoming have always been yearly traditions for me. From 2003 to 2018, I was present at all but three homecoming celebrations (2011, 2013, 2015). I always made a fun Saturday out of homecoming and reminisced about my days on campus at Slippery Rock. In the early post-academia era, I wanted to go back because it felt like a safe space to me and I wanted to make up for what I felt wasn’t a good enough experience. This was before I blogged regularly and started my fashion journey. From 2011 to 2019, I was always a regular attendee at the Toastmasters conferences in my District. I also attended one in Ohio. What happened?
Slippery Rock Homecoming was a longstanding tradition for me. I started in college and ran with it for a long time, even after I graduated. Eventually, the tradition got stale for me and a new one would take its place in the District 13 Fall Symposium. The same was true with educating myself as that finally wore itself out as well.
I attended almost every conference in my District with the first one I missed being in the Spring of 2018. The last time that I attended an in-person District Conference was the Spring of 2019. You all know what happened a year later. Life changes also played a part, as I have not attended the last two conferences. However, that streak will come to an end as I just registered for the 2024 Spring Conference slated for May 3-5 in Washington, PA. I won’t be far from Tanger Outlets and The Meadows and, just a drive to and from the city. As we get closer, I’ll look back on past conferences and maybe even do a top five. There will be a full weekend’s worth of blogs, including my plans for after the conference on Sunday.
Yesterday was the Division C International and Humorous Speech contests, which were held at the First United Methodist Church in Blairsville. All of our contestants gave a great performance and both sets of speeches were a mix of funny and heartfelt. I got to spend time with some of our amazing Toastmasters in Division C. The District Trio all showed up as well to encourage our speakers and award the winners. While I attended the first two contests, I will likely miss these next two since they’re in the morning and I’ll probably be asleep.
While I was at the contest, I made plans to attend some upcoming meetings in April. I’ll be attending Johnstown’s meeting online on April 9 and in the future, I’ll go up in person. That will take place sometime in the summer or early Fall. With my schedule pretty much set, I’m usually off Thursday nights and that gives me the opportunity to attend an upcoming Indiana Toastmasters meeting. That will also be online. My new webcam that I got in September has made attending virtual meetings easier but I still like getting together in person.
While we were between contests, I had the opportunity to talk to some of my friends from Johnstown Toastmasters whom I met at December’s club officer training. When I make it to an in person meeting, there will be a seat at #thegirlstable waiting for me. That phrase might just rank up there with the famous DTM Huddle from five years ago that I coined at my last in-person District Conference.
Over the last few days, I’ve started to come around and have no longer been having to hide myself. The end result is that I’m feeling more confident. It really helps when you love you, even if others “like” you.
Stylish 🍒 