I’m standing in front of a classroom of people, clutching my notecards, preparing to give my first speech of the semester. I’m much more nervous than I thought I would be. You might be wondering why I’m telling you about my public speaking class – but I’m not. I’m telling you about my first experience speaking at a Toastmasters meeting.

Toastmasters is an international club centered around public speaking. where members prepare and give speeches and also give and receive feedback. The official website, http://toastmasters.org.msstate.edu/, goes into more detail about the benefits of the club.

“Students learn to tell their stories. They listen and answer. They plan and lead. They give feedback – and accept it,” the website reads. 

I had been attending the weekly meetings on and off for two semesters but I finally gave in last week and volunteered to be a speaker. My first speech is an ‘about me’ speech and only has to be four to six minutes in length – no big deal right?

So here I am, at the front of the room, reading my notecards. I can feel all eyes on me. I’m sure this is normal and possibly even a kind gesture towards someone who speaks often, but I am honestly considering asking them to stop staring.

I resist the urge and continue speaking. My funny line is coming up and I’m sweating thinking about what country I’m going to move to if they don’t laugh. Here it comes. 

“For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to play ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk’ on the piano” I say confidently.

I hear laughter. I did it, now I can continue on with my speech. I get more confident as I continue speaking and when I’m finally done I smile and say ‘thank you’ and rush back to my seat. The rest of the meeting commences and next on the agenda is ‘Table Topics’. 

Table Topics is an opportunity for members to introduce a topic and speak for a short amount of time.

Recent topics have been “If you could punch anybody in the face who would it be” and “What is your least favorite thing about Valentine’s Day.” Then, anybody who wants to can speak up and discuss.

This meeting, the Table Topics master has a slideshow of multiple flags from different countries. A member stands up and shares what they know about the random country that appears on the screen. The first one is South Korea, then India, and the Turkey. I volunteer to speak about the next one, keeping my fingers crossed that it is the United States. 

“Um, New Zealand. New Zealand is a country. It is spelled N-E-W Z-E-A-L-A-N-D,” I say confidently. “That’s all I know about New Zealand.”

This club offers students the opportunity to get out of their comfort zone and speak in front of other students and receive constructive feedback. Most importantly, these students want to be here. It’s not a mandatory three credit hour class filled with communication majors. It is voluntary and full of diversity. Members vary in country of origin, classification and major, but one thing unifies them, the desire to improve their public speaking skills.

Meetings are held at 5 p.m. every Wednesday in McCool 215. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend.