waking up in a nation of immigrants

I just finished delivering my Toastmasters Speech #1: The Ice Breaker. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from my fellow club members. They enjoyed the flow of the story, the topic, the humor, and the overall presentation. I was also voted as best speaker for the day. Sweet. This gives me confidence to carry on and be the best speaker I can be

Below is the text of my Ice Breaker speech. It was from my old blog post. I re-wrote it in speech form and edited it to fit the 6-minute time limit. Looking forward to more public speeches.

“And di marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay di makararating sa paroroonan.” [Translation: "He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.]”

~ Dr. Jose P. Rizal (Philippine National Hero)

I remember it like it was yesterday…

“We don’t have stick-shifts here,” said the guy on the front desk.

“Oh, ok. Fine. I’ll take automatic. Economy, please.”

I could still smell the “brand new” scent of my first rental car. It was a 1997 Hyundai Accent GT from En