Weathering the Storm

Sometimes life happens so strangely, yet coincidentally that I have to laugh.

A couple weeks ago at Toastmasters, the lights at the Bluebonnet Library started flickering just as we were starting our meeting.

Then they went out entirely.

Then our phones started shrieking: “Dangerous weather alert!!!”

I wondered, “Should we cancel?”

The security guard looked at me and said, “I wouldn’t want to be outside in this.”

When the library staff started sending ALL library patrons into our meeting room to shelter in place (it was the one room in the library without windows), that made the decision clear: we’d continue as best we could using our phones as flashlights.

As the first speaker for the night, the whole premise of my speech project was “Managing a Difficult Audience,” so 4 or 5 people had been pre-selected by another member to “distract me” in various ways while I spoke.

But since it was pretty dark and we had so many unexpected guests in the room, I couldn’t tell who was trying to distract me ON PURPOSE and who was distracting me BY ACCIDENT.

It was both challenging and exhilarating to deliver a 12-minute extemporaneous speech to an audience of shadows while handling auditory AND semi-visual distractions left and right—a very real-world scenario that I would have been absolutely terrified to tackle just a few years ago.

After an hour, the major wind threat passed and the library decided to close early, so we ended our meeting early, too. But I’m very proud of our GSU Toastmasters members for stepping up to this unexpected challenge and making a bit of lemonade out of a tricky situation!

As we walked out the door, one of the librarians even said, “I’m so glad I finally got to attend a meeting! I’ve wanted to for years, but I’m always at the desk on Monday nights.”

This will definitely go down as one of the most memorable Toastmasters meetings I’ve ever attended.

If you’ve been meaning to work on your speaking/leadership/ feedback skills or are curious to check out Toastmasters in general, guests are always welcome!

Our GSU club meets weekly on Mondays from 7pm to 8:30pm at the Bluebonnet Regional Library in Baton Rouge, but you can find a full directory of Toastmasters club meeting dates, times and locations worldwide at Toastmasters.org.

And we’ll ALMOST ALWAYS leave the light on for ya!

With gratitude,
​
Ashley

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