Barcelona Toastmasters Club: Enlightened

If there is one thing about Toastmasters, and our club in particular, is that every session is a surprise, like a Christmas gift you get to open every wednesday in the evening. Last Wednesday was no exception, but it was a surprise to some more than to others.

For example, Iñaki Eguiarte, our Toastmaster of the evening, took the role with just a few hours in advance, and as he so humorously put it, “only god knows what's going to happen”. But that's the spirit of Toastmasters, the ability to come up with an entire session with no preparation, to “think on your feet” and get the best out of an unexpected situation, thinking only in the now.

Speaking of which, “The power of now” by Eckhart Tolle was the book Iñaki gave Carla for recruiting him in such a short notice, a hilarious detail that reminded me of a book that I read a long time ago, and a read I recommend to anyone interested in personal growth (which I assume is everyone here in Toastmasters).

In return for the book, Carla put forward the word of the day, “Enlighten” (to give information or understanding to; instruct; edify / to free from ignorance, prejudice, or superstition) which gave rise to many speakers to introduce a common theme - the search for wisdom and inner peace – throughout the session.

A much enjoyable session, full of surprises and unexpected findings, that opened with an icebreaker, which is not only the first prepared speech of a new member, but the big opportunity to introduce oneself to the club, as a person and as a speaker. It was the case of our Mexican fellow Paul Conde, who took us through the “three lessons they didn't teach you at school”, the title of his speech. Using his experience talking to girls, and letting them know you like them, he “enlightened” us about his life, and the lessons he learned from it: dealing with failure, accepting the unexpected results, and being ready to learn.

Next came a speaker who proved to be an expert in her selected topic, “Happiness”. Catalina Maldonado, our charming member from Colombia, the “happiest country in the world” according to a survey, took us on an exercise of reverse psychology on how to be unhappy. And with this twist, she “got to the point” (her manual project) of explaining the secret to happiness, the second gift from this unexpectedly belated Christmas.

We were suddenly taken in on a journey to the past, where the lovely Rayane Bachammar reenacted an episode of her youth (not that she's not young anymore, but you know what I mean) where she was trying to solve her doubts about becoming a doctor, which she faced by going “Undercover”, pretending to be a medicine student in a hospital. Rayane brought her theatrical experience to the scene and made her body speak, as her project required, and told us to find out about our doubts. Note taken, Rayane.

The stakes were really high at this point and we still had one last surprise from the prepared speeches. Evgueni Talal from the Prestigious Speakers club brought his speech from the special contest held at his club last week, and took us in his “wrong quest”, his failure to find peace of mind and become the Buddha. In his funny, inspiring talk, he called us to talk to our alter ego and “accept the challenges of life with gratitude, enjoying them while they last”, an enlightening message that echoed through the rest of the session.

It wasn't an easy task for our four evaluators Mariyana, Javier, Madalina and Christian, who gave their spoken feedback in the best spirit of Toastmasters, full of (deserved) praise and (appreciated) encouragement to the speakers to keep improving themselves.

After all this enlightenment and inspiring messages came the funniest (and scariest, to some) part of the meeting, though is my particular favorite and the one that sets a distinct mark on our growth as speakers. The Table Topics session was run by Lukasz Zagroba, who asked some us (Joan Marc, Ambrós and yours truly) to advocate for ourselves as the best suited candidates for a job, sadly an everyday subject in these times. His were not usual jobs, and we did our best to be selected for a much needed job as a rodeo clown (!), an odor controller (!!) and a pet food taster (!!!), all of these by the way actual jobs that are done by actual people.

There wasn't much in store after such an enlightening session full of surprise, excitement and inspiration. Ambrós Abellana gave a most correct General Evaluation, and with that and the usual counter reports, Mariyana came back to the lectern as president, to present Paul, Catalina and Rayane, with the ribbons that distinguish them on their first, third and fifth speech, respectively.