Perfect imperfection
Good
afternoon my fellow toastmasters and all the audiences. Today is a very
splendid day for me because I deliver my very first speech as a toastmaster. You
know how it feels exactly right?
Let me
start with a question,
Are
you familiar with a singer named John Legend? Then I’m sure that you know this
line from his popular song. I’ll sing it but promise me you will not focus on
my voice, instead, you will focus on the lyrics. This is the song,
'Cause all of me, Loves all of you, Love your curves and
all your edges, All your perfect imperfections
If
you check this song from the beginning to the end, you can see that the writer
of the song tries to show us how he loves his love although there are flaws or
something imperfect on her. He doesn’t say that her couple was perfect, but
still, he is crazy about her, and loves her with all his heart. And in my ice
breaker speech, I’d love to deliver a
speech about myself, I, with all my perfect imperfection.
Born
28 years ago in Lampung, I’m currently a mom of 1, a teacher and a freelance
translator. I’m not a perfect woman to live a life as a full day school
teacher, a mom of a half year daughter, and a freelance translator altogether.
As a
mom, I cannot give my full attention to my little daughter. I leave her during
the day to take care of other children and leave her with her aunt. I can’t
always be the one who feeds her 3 or more times a day. I can't always be the one who baths her in the afternoon. But, because of this imperfection, I always try my best to have quality time whenever I'm with her.
As a
teacher, I’m also imperfect. Although I major English for education, I didn’t
write a thesis about education because I don’t really like the technical things
in teaching like lesson plan, syllable and etc. Instead of writing about
education, I wrote a thesis analyzing Barrack Obama’s speech. But, trust me, I
always try my best to be a good teacher for my students with my knowledge and
skill. And that is why I’m here now as a toastmaster, because I want to develop
my skill to make it benefit for me personally in term of new community, and for
students to develop their skills. Today’s education is heading to 21st
century education that requires out students to be globalized, creative,
innovative and collaborative. As a teacher, how am I supposed to create 21st
century skilled students if I don’t develop myself?
Now
as a freelance translator, I’m imperfect too. I frequently finished my works
very close with the deadline. Although I
graduated from English department, I’ve never upgrade myself in a translation
development like what I’m doing now in toastmaster. I’m still learning,
learning to translate better, learning new vocabularies and learning to give
the best service to my customer.
Now,
how about as wife? Well…I’m sure.. although almost every morning I leave the
house in a mess because of rush hour, although I don’t regularly serve tea for
my husband, although I don’t always look pretty in front of him, I’m sure that
so far, he says the same thing as John Legend sings to his couple, he loves all
my perfect imperfections.
Dear fellow toastmasters,
My life is not perfect. But in that imperfection, I find
the beauty and the art of life. In that imperfection, I find things are filling
up each other, strength and weakness. In that imperfection, I realize that as
human, we have a lot of weakness and therefore, we always have a chance to
improve.
Let me end my speech by quoting a line from Amit Ray in
World peace:
“Life is not always perfect. Like a road, it has many bends,
ups and down, but that’s its beauty.”
Thank you for your attention, over to you, toastmasters.
And...this is how I did it! Wasn't exactly the same as what I wrote
Ice breaker for Dynamic Toastmasters