Toastmasters Speech 1 - Icebreaker

Your first speech with Toastmasters is called an Icebreaker. it is your introduction to the club.

Thank you Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, and most welcome guests. And good evening.

I am Donna. I am going to tell you everything you need to know about me in 7 minutes or less.

A couple of weeks ago, Adam mentioned that joining Toastmasters was part of his “Get off your butt project.” I have a similar project, I call mine the “Get your butt out of the house” project. For the last couple of years, I have been working, eating, and sleeping, and repeating the process daily. I am now looking for more. I hear there’s this thing called “dating” and that sounds like it might be fun. Also “movies” and “parties” sound very interesting, and I think I vaguely remember enjoying something called “dancing.” So, as part of my effort to interact with more people on a social basis, I found my way here. And I thank you for the welcome I’ve received.

I am the daughter of two Air Force Officers. However, back in the 60's women were discharged from the service upon becoming pregnant, so my mother, the lieutenant, left the service upon becoming pregnant with me. My father was a fighter pilot, he flew F106s. This is not his story, today, but I’ve always been very proud of the fact that my father joined the air force as a high school dropout at the age of 17 and ended up, some 20 years later, an officer, a pilot, and retiring as a captain. As a little more family trivia, my mother is one of the first ten women ever to travel faster than the speed of sound. She was in a plane with my father at the time, when he broke mach 1. That was in 1963. I was born in March of 1964. For those of you doing math, that means there a is very good chance that I am ALSO one of the first 10 women to travel faster than the speed of sound.

I am not actually an Oklahoma native, though I have lived here since I was five. I was actually born in Tacoma, Washington, and spent three years as a young child in Germany.. Upon my father’s retirement from the air force, my family settled in Moore. Since then, I have lived in Muskogee, Tulsa, Stillwater, and Norman, to name just a few. I am a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma, with a bachelors degree in Zoology, and also a graduate of Oklahoma State College of Veterinary Medicine. I have been practicing in the Oklahoma City area since 2003, and have been practicing here in Norman for a little over a year. I see small animals, dogs, cats, the occasional bird or reptile, and other smaller critters.
I currently live here in Norman. I live not far from Sooner Mall and cannot get out of my house without going through that oh-so-very-frustrating construction project. I have a 19 year old son, Alex, who has moved out on his own. We get along much better now. Alex is, of course, handsome, brilliant, and extremely talented. I currently share my home with three dogs, Chance, Taju, and Sammy, one cat, Max, and one ferret, Joe. Each of those pets except the ferret was a rescue. Chance, the Dalmatian, was 4 months old and being given away in the wal-mart parking lot by a couple that were moving into an apartment that didn’t accept pets. Taju, a beautiful german shepherd mix, was just 3-months old and totally pathetic when she walked into my house one cold, rainy day. By the time the rain stopped, she had charmed her way into my family. Sammy, a cattle dog mix, was a badly injured patient who’s owners couldn’t afford his care. Since I’d just spent all day trying to save his life, I couldn’t bring myself to euthanize him, and instead, adopted him. Sammy has since managed to wrap me completely around his little paw and has, for three consecutive years, won the “most spoiled dog in Oklahoma” award, given annually by my staff. Max, an orange tabby, was the second of my pets to just walk in the front door. As it happened, his timing was excellent as we were at that time suffering a really wretchedly bad mouse infestation. Max wasted no time solving that problem for us, and won a secure spot in the family.
All of the preceding is background, trivia. Here is the real Donna...
There are some people who are defined by their career. Some of you may be like that. I am, as well. I am a veterinarian.
My being a vet means a few things to you. The first is that I no longer have the ability to conduct polite dinner conversation. My conversation is peppered with stories involving pee, poop, blood, snot, puss, various other more objectionable bodily secretions - and, yes, there are more objectionable fluids than pee, poop, blood, snot, and puss - as well as descriptions of the surgical removal of body parts that most people would prefer not to discuss at the table.
Second, but related, I, and my fellow vets, do not mean the same thing when we say that something is cool that you do. I give you a friendly warning... if I start a conversation with “I saw the coolest thing today!” you do NOT want to know what that was. In fact, if I utter such a phrase, I recommend that you immediately prepare a subject change, because it is very likely that I am about to tell you, in graphic detail, about something that I removed from the inside of a patient, and it is probably going to include some combination of pee, poop, blood, snot, puss, or various other objectionable bodily secretions.
And, third, it means, if you don’t want to adopt a stray pet that’s been abandoned at my clinic, you should start preparing your excuses now. I ALWAYS have a cute little puppy that was left in a box at our door or found tossed into the dumpster, or a kitten that was rescued from a coke machine or huddling back into the loading dock, or a dog that was hit by a car and we can’t find the owner.. The list goes on and on.
The above warnings hold true not just for me, but for most other veterinarians you may know.
So, now that you have been amply warned and prepared, I look forward to proceeding with my “Get your butt out of the house project” and getting to know my fellow toastmasters.

This speech won "best speaker."