“Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you’ve found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for”, Lawrence Block.
We had the pleasure to welcome six guest at our in-person meeting. We got to know Sohil, who has participated in the John Deere Club already, the Russian couple Tanja and Ilia who were here for the first time, Marc from Mannheim and Pio who has attended two online sessions. Lena came to her third in-person session.
Poorana led as Toastmaster through the evening and thoroughly explained the structure of the agenda. Sybille gave the word of the day: copacetic – very satisfactory, fine, ok. Example: I was worried the concert was going to go badly, but John assured me everything was totally copacetic. The word was used three times.
Nadine as TT Master explained the TT rules and gave questions with reference to the theme serendipity:
1. Are you a lucky person or haunted by misfortune? Oliver tells us a personal story about his struggle to be self-employed.
2. A woman turns to you and tell you you have some toilet paper on your shoes. How do you change the situation?
Pio referred to the toilet paper shortage during the pandemic and manages to invite the women for coffee.
3. Share with us a story from the past when you felt so lucky. Tanja gave us a personal story when someone brought back the phone she had lost.
4. It is your Wedding Day and you can’t find the rings. What do you do? Marc had many ideas to make up for the loss. In fact, he had just proposed to his girlfriend and she said yes.
5. What is your biggest lesson about luck and to be lucky in your life.
Lena shared with us how she experienced serenpidity twice when she came to Germany without knowing the language.
Quote from Laura Lippman:
“There is a serendipity to real life that the internet cannot duplicate. Do you use the library? For anything? Well, sometimes you end up picking up the book next to the one you were looking for, and that’s the book that changes your life.”
We had one prepared speech by Gabi. It is a non-manual speech. The idea is to give her the opportunity to practice a speech she has to deliver as head of the parents’ association of her daughter’s school. As an exception she spoke in German. The title of her speech was: “Geschafft” – und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne.
Her speech was evaluated by Sybille. The intro was catching with rhetorical devices like repetition. The voice was clear, pauses good. However, she might work on the structure and focus more on the time when the young people prepared their A-levels and include the challenges during the pandemic.
We only voted for the best TT speaker. The award went to Lena.
“Sometimes serendipity is just intention unmasked.” ~ Elizabeth Berg
(Thanks to Sybille for this fine recap!)
Our next meeting is on the 14th of March and is online. Please join us!
Best Toastmaster wishes, Jeff
Mannheim Int. Toastmasters
