Area H1 & H3 International Speech & Tabletopics Contests

It was a successful joint Area H1 & H3 International Speech & Tabletopics Contests at the Motorola Factory in Hsin-tien Saturday afternoon, March 19th.

Gina and I represented Grand Toastmasters Club to compete with another three contestants at Area H1. All three placed, Gina and I didn't make Grand proud this year. Nevertheless both Gina and I delivered better speeches than at the Grand's in-house speech contest two days before.

Caroline Kiang from TTY won the championship, she talked about her exciting experiences being the matchmaker. Bruce Chen from MOFA joined the Toastmasters contest for the first time. He won the first runner up by talking about changes in life. Pierre Chen from MOFA claimed the second runner up by sharing the recipe to a happy marriage.

After 311 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I have been overwhelmed with the recent frequent natural disasters on earth. What if the world comes to an end soon? There are many things on my must do list. I decided to talk about Apocalypse, to answer my doubt about the future ahead of us. Being a depressive talk, my speech didn't win the laugter of the audience, my speech didn't win the hearts of the judges. But I was glad I did research on the topic and shared with the audience about the recent thought of mine.

Life is full of surprises! One day we watched the devastating earthquake in New Zealand on TV, the following day we saw the horrifying unprecedented strong earthquake and tsunami smashed Japan. We are living at a time when mankind senses that the end of all things is very near. The global warming, the economic downturns, crime, wars, tsunamis, earthquakes, and disease outbreaks cause people to question how long our earth can sustain.

The doomsday speculations include some believe that the Judgement day begins from May 21st this year and ends on October 21st. Others concern the end of "Mayan Calendar", on 12-21-2012. People are talking about armageddon and apocalypse to ponder upon what can happen to human beings. Apocalypse from the Greek is a term of revelation or disclosure, or to lift the veil, so to speak.

We are living in a time of crossroads. It is an opportunity to look at ourselves once and answer our inner requests. If you want to travel around the world, don’t procrastinate! Go for it! If you want to fly to Mars, take the journey! If you want to hone your communication and leadership skills, join the Toastmasters speech contests! Time waits for no one, treasure every moment you have. Opportunity knocks but once!

Fellow toastmasters and friends. before the veil is about to be lifted, take action to realize your dreams. Let's join hands to face the apocalypse with passion, hope, and love. Let's look forward to the bright future in front of us. Contest master!

At the Area H1 tabletopics speech contest, I was lucky to win the championship. The topic is "Among many people you love, parents, children, friends and others, who is the most important person to you? Why?" And my answer is U, the one with me at the moment. I shall represent Area H1 to compete at the Division H Speech Contest Saturday morning, March 26th.