Saturday morning, I was on my way to my third speech contest in as many weeks. The Division C Tall Tales and International Speech contest was held at United Presbyterian Church in Blairsville. Just like the previous two divisional contests and February’s area contest I attended which was held in Johnstown, this one did not disappoint.
Division C has 19 clubs including some that have recently chartered in the last year like DuBois and Western Maryland, and is made up of four areas. The Division stretches from north to south and west to east. In the Tall Tales and International Speech contest, seven contestants from four areas participated. Area 21 was represented by Johnstown and Allegheny Mountains. Area 22 was represented by Penn State Pingers, Nittany, and DuBois (which chartered last April). DuBois meets on the first and third Wednesday, just like Greensburg Toastmasters. Area 23 was represented by Arconic and Ambassadors, and Area 24 was represented by Monroeville and BPMI.
The winners of the Tall Tales contest were our area directors for the Area 23/24 contest on March 7, 2020, the final speech contest in our District before everything shut down the next week due to the COVID 19 pandemic. We fist bumped and bumped elbows when coming up to speak because we weren’t sure if we’d spread the virus or not. That day felt like the closing days of the 1994 major league baseball season which would be impacted by the players’ strike that cancelled the World Series that Fall.
Sure enough, a week later, upcoming speech contests and the Spring conference would soon be postponed due to the fast spread of the virus into the United State. March 11, 2020, was the day that COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. It felt full circle as they were our contestants on this day and they will be the ones representing the district on April 26 at the District contest. We shared bits and pieces of that day, before and after the contest.
It felt good to be back at United Presbyterian Church, as one of my fellow members from Greensburg said to me. We held our Achievers Toastmasters meetings there at the beginning of the 2019-2020 Toastmasters year, before we were forced to hold online meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a very nice church in the heart of downtown Blairsville.
All the contestants gave great speeches and we had a few surprises as well. Some of these speeches I heard for the second time. The top two in each contest will represent their clubs in the District Tall Tales and International Speech Contest on April 26 during the District 13 Spring Conference. I was on the fence about attending this upcoming conference because of my mood last Spring. It was the first time I attended in-person since 2019 and while the venue was great (close to the casino), I was feeling down because of some mental health issues I created for myself. I had my Toastmaster friends with me at the conference but I was feeling unloved and nonexistent elsewhere. I was still feeling unaccepted in my journey as well, and I couldn’t accept myself.
Those feelings lingered into the summer and impacted my Summer TLI experience as well as my vacation. I came into that week off excited, having my early birthday dinner at the Olive Garden on a very hot June day. I set myself up for disappointment because of those same feelings of doubt and that distracted me from having a good time and learning more. I could excuse lack of sleep, but I wish I could have just enjoyed myself, at least at the onset of my vacation. Fortunately, things would turn a corner as the summer went and transitioned into Fall. At Winter TLI, my mood was much improved and I was on cloud nine after all of the compliments I received for my style. I also had a better time and learned a lot from the speakers and the sessions.
Coming up this week, opening day 2025 as the Bucs take the field in Miami with their Cy Young hopeful on the mound. Mr. Clougherty and I reconvene our Dinner Series at Kings and we’ll highlight the Buccos. I “attended” church this morning at ACAC (not my first time) and hope to visit a local church in Greensburg soon. I’m ready to get back into it.
Laurel Highlands meeting this Tuesday. I plan on giving them some more awards so they can become Distinguished.
Stylish 🍒 