Toastmasters Speech Project # 10 (Inspire your audience)

WAKE HIM UP !

“You could plan out your future as much as you want, but life has its own plans for you...are you willing to allow life to take you for a ride, or will you stand up and fight for your dreams ?

Fellow Toastmasters & distinguished guests, if you have any doubts on what your answer to that question should be, then I’m addressing the right audience…..because today I’m going to tell you a story…not just an ordinary story……it’s the story of TAYLOR MORRIS…

Who is Taylor Morris ? 

 

He was a young boy in Iowa City, United States, whose childhood dream was to join the US Navy. Through his determination and hard work, this dream eventually came true in 2009, when he graduated as an explosive detection and disposal expert of US Navy.

Taylor was like me, I mean handsome :D , had his dream job, and with a beautiful girl friend, Danielle Kelly, he had everything in his life, that a man could ask for…..But life had other ideas…it was not kind to allow this happiness to flow smoothly like 'a leaf in a creek'….Taylor was deployed to Afghanistan in January 2012. And one fateful day, on 3^rd May 2012, during a search operation for explosives, Taylor accidentally stepped on a bomb........ Boom ! He was thrown in the air, and hit the ground hard with fatal injuries…He could only remember his colleagues rushing to him to check whether he is still alive…..after a short while his whole world went blank….

When Taylor woke up from a deep sleep after a few days, he realized he was in a hospital….

His first sight brought a smile to his face… because it was the sight that his eyes enjoy the most in this world….Danielle. She was right beside him. She kissed him gently and caressed his shoulder. ' Taylor felt awkward '…because whenever they met each other, Danielle’s first reaction was to grab his hand and interlock her fingers with those of Taylor’s right hand. When she caressed his shoulder instead, he sensed that something was not right… So he moved his head to check on his right hand…..To his great shock, there was no right hand.... He realized what would have happened and wanted to see the total extent of damage he had suffered. So he asked Danielle to remove the blanket that covered him. When the blanket came off inch by inch, Taylor Morris did not want to believe what his eyes were showing him…' he was no different from a piece of wood '. His loss was not only his right limb, but all four of them. His whole world crumbled in front of his eyes within a matter of seconds.

Toastmasters, ' Life at times can knock you down flat on your back....but it’s not the knock downs that matters, rather it is what you do after the knock down which defines who you are & how strong your character is !

At this juncture in our story, having seen his body, or whatever is left of it, from that hospital bed, "Taylor took a decision that brought me on this stage today….” he decided wipe off those tears from Danielle’s eyes.......he decided to rise from the ashes like a phoenix........and most of all….Taylor Morris declared war against his fate !

From that day onwards, he started a mission, 'to reclaim a normal life back, for him & for Danielle'…time passed by very slowly..…due to his sheer determination, never-give up attitude and strong will, Taylor was making rapid progress in his recovery phase and was transferred from hospital ward to rehabilitation.....Meanwhile Danielle, was right beside him like a shadow, in every step of the way..…helping, motivating and picking him up whenever he was down....

After a few more months of painfully slow but demanding rehabilitation, Taylor received some good news for a change.....Impressed by his progress, the doctors decided to test artificial limbs on Taylor…The legs were fixed, first the right & then the left....Taylor was so eager to attempt the first steps in his second life.

But life…..was not done, playing games with him….! In trying to walk Taylor seriously aggravated one of his internal wounds and the doctors decided that the remaining structure of his body is not strong enough to take the stress of artificial limbs. It was like the end of the road in his recovery…. Danielle was devastated, but not Taylor…." he had mission to finish ", and was prepared to conquer any challenge that was thrown in his way…even after this great setback, Taylor was not prepared take his foot off the gas and started working out even harder with a fresh energy…..

After a few more weeks of sweat, tears & pain, Taylor reached a milestone…'the target physical condition the doctors have set for him'…Doctors who were stunned with Taylor’s guts decided to give him a second chance…artificial limbs were fixed once more…and this time, faced with never fading determination, ' fate had to accept defeat….' Doctors couldn’t believe their eyes.....Taylor Morris had completed a medical miracle.....The person whom they thought would never move again by himself, was walking ecstatically along all corridors of the hospital, grinning from ear to ear like a child……' just like a bird who has learned to fly for the very first time '….and Danielle……was drowning in tears of joy…...tears of overflowing joy…why not ?…Her fiancee is back on his feet !   

Ever since then, Taylor Morris became an icon for never give up attitude and strong will power. Taylor lost his arms & legs...we may or may not go through a similar ordeal, because you never know what life has in store for us...So, if someday life knocks you down, do not accept it as your fate..If Taylor could win his life back from that hospital bed..why can't you ?

Just before I conclude, let me ask that first question again....' Are you going to allow life to take you for a ride ?'   “NO”......We all have a Taylor Morris within each one of us...when faced with a catastrophe, all you have to do is to wake him up.....Wake him up and fight back for your dreams...!!

 

Toastmasters Speech Project # 9 (Persuade WIth Power)

THE GRAVE CAN WAIT  !

(Note:Just before the commencement of the speech all lights are turned off and the whole audience is in total darkness)

When you wake up one morning, if all what you see around you is this darkness, what will be your reaction ? You’ll be nervous for a few seconds, but then will realize that, at worst, it’s a power failure and that lights and brightness will be restored in your world sooner rather than later. But, there are some people among us, for whom all what they see from cradle to death bed is this lonely darkness. My dear friends, welcome to the world of a blind person. Today, I dedicate this speech to all blind people in this world, and within the next 7 minutes I’ll attempt to bring lights back (Note : lights are switch-on at this point) to the lives of at least a few of them.

I want you to take a look at these people,

 all of them are famous for great achievements in their respective fields. What is common for all of them is blindness. Can you imagine how much more they could have achieved, if they had eye sight like you and me ? So, today I’m giving you an opportunity to lighten up a life of someone like them, someone in darkness…....someone blind !

Fellow Toastmasters and distinguished guests, if you still don’t have a clue of what I’m going to talk about, I’m not going to tell you that. But rather, I’ll show you a presentation and let someone more appropriate do the talking……

Toastmasters, do I need to explain anything more ? I’m talking about Eye donation…

Someday, when you make us all sad, and start knocking the doors of heaven, the body left behind on earth will be buried or cremated, but not necessarily your eyes. Human eyes could serve us for more than one lifetime. You may be dead, but your eyes could chase away the darkness surrounding someone else, and will continue to show the beauty of this wonderful world to him.   

So how do you do this ? The process of eye donation is not as complicated as it sounds. When you close your eye lids for the very last time in this life, someone has to inform the eye bank within 6 hours. Then the eye bank practitioners will come to where you are, and will retrieve the tissue called 'cornea' from your eyes. Within just 14 days someone will be seeing himself for the very 1^st time from a mirror through 'your eyes'…..isn’t it wonderful that you could still make someone happy even through your death ?  

Now, who can and cannot do this ? Anyone between the ages of 2 and 73 could donate their eyes, even if you have poor eye sight, diabetes or even cancer. The only barrier to becoming an eye donor is when you are infected with HIV Aids, active hepatitis or a sexually transmitted disease. So, now you have another reason to stay away from Aids & STD’s.

Before I conclude, I should clear a misconception about eye donation that is holding back thousands of prospective eye donors. Which is, the myth that when the eyes are removed, it will create a hole where the eyes existed, and your corpse would look scary......No.....only this thin tissue in the front eye called 'Cornea'  ;

 will be retrieved and not the whole eye. So trust me, your corpse will look only as scarier as how much you looked when you were alive.  :D

My dear friends, now that all these doubts are cleared, I really hope that you’ll follow my lead and will embrace this ultimate meritorious and humanitarian act of eye donation. Because, 'what you do for yourself dies with you, what remains is what you do for others'…leave the legacy behind !

Finally, when you are in your deathbed, grasping for your last few breaths, remember me, remember this day, and pass your eyes on.....They need not be buried yet, THE GRAVE CAN WAIT !