Fourth Toastmasters Speech

The thing that I could work on is delivery (and perhaps lengthen it), but otherwise the speech went well.

Here it is:

What a Wonderful Adventure! Life is full of untold meaning, but we usually do not know what it is! We push ourselves to exhaustion, and later wonder why we did. Friends, relatives, acquaintances, and others we cannot give a label to enter and leave our lives leaving some sort of impact. We hoard things and give other things away. Sometimes we are more content with ignorance than knowledge. Other times we would rather be knowledgeable. We like to think we know everything, that it all makes sense. Sometimes we are bawling because it does not.

Should we be crippled by our past? What happened to the wonderment we had as children that we so dearly long for? Everything seemed possible then, and it was never wrong the believe that it could be. As we grew older we felt we understood and the saying Carpe Diem went out the window. When did we accept the word can't?

Why do we always want to be something, but usually end up settling for what seems to fit the context of current reality? Perhaps we would like our minds wiped so we can experience unbridled creativity again. We want to fly, and hope it is
possible. Our wings may not melt like Icarus when we fly too close to the sun. What is too close? We might just get there.

Let's try. Chocolate never tasted so good, nor flowers smelled so sweet. We may skin our knees and even get sand in them but we get up and keep going. We can take on everything because we believe life does have meaning, and we have meaning
as well.

We are loved. We feel the warmth of our mother's arms and see the smiles of our friends. Time comes together in harmony. We may see it as images. Images of today, yesterday, and the future yet to be. The world is mad yes, but we are madly in love with it. We appreciate even its imperfections. It is an experience to us. It is something for us to change and give back to. We may sit there an watch it pass by, utterly amazed by what is happening around us. We are always learning new things. Each day the sun hits things at a different angle, and every day we are surrounded by an infinite array of colors. The world itself is changing at a rapid place, and so are we. It is an adventure that keeps unfolding.

Do we know the meaning of life? Religion can give an answer. Thought has difficulty. Do we choose to believe something to make ourselves happy? Do we do it to make others happy? Maybe we don't choose religion, but what do we choose? Do we choose to forget the question? Can we? Maybe there is another way to answer.

So we all are here. We never chose the creation part, but we can make a lot of choices beyond that. What an adventure!

I look at you today and I quiver. I want to know what you are thinking. I really do! Sometimes I am afraid that you will judge me, but I hope you don't. I want to look at you with amazement, because you are amazing! I wish I could feel the fearful respect for you that I had when I first came to Toastmasters.

I was so afraid then. I know you've come so far, and accomplished unfathomable things. Sometimes I forget that. Carpe Diem! Life is a Wonderful Adventure.