Basic Speech 1: Who I am - A Case Study

(This is initially a speech delivered for the Competent Communicator Manual of Toastmaster International. My Basic Speech 1) Main objective of Speech 1 is to Break the Ice — It challenges the speaker to face the fear of public speaking and deliver a speech that is very familiar with the speaker - about his/her self. The speech should be 4 to 6 minutes. Who I am - A Case Study Once upon a time, on the night of September 15, when the world is at war, Gulf War to be precise, my mother is having a war of her own, my birth to be exact. A thousand kilometers from the hospital, it was bombarded with missiles. Boom, boom, boom but my mother was whispering to her womb, asking  "please baby come out, do not make your mama suffer, it's time to see the world."  And then I was born. A healthy baby girl with a red dragon mark at the back of her neck and a map on her head (like Gorbachev's). I came because of the promise to see the world. And when I came my father has huge expectations because he said  "Great people are marked" http://lifemoresimply.blogspot.com But most often than not, society dictates how a person should be. Sometimes, even before a person is born, fate has already been pronounced by the guardians. It's a boy, he'll be an engineer just like his father and then a good housewife if it is a girl. So, what would make me any different from other individuals? Who am I? Is the question. I have developed theories to answer this question. First is the name theory. Filipinos always give reasons to their children's name. Most of the time it is, interestingly, a combination of other names. I am Mariam Jaustine Reyes Sollano. The first two came from three saints - Mary, Joseph and Agustine. Interestingly, these are the names of my great grandparents. While Reyes is a spanish word for King and Sollano means A New Sun or bagong araw. Seems like hope is always been part of my father's lineage. Yes, I have a Spanish blood, a Catholic heart and a family of educators. Second is the MaPa theory. In a very simple explanation it is how Mama and Papa mapped a person's behavior. Opposite attracts and their offsprings usually has the tendency to have both of the parents personality. Mama is talkative, while Papa is not. Papa is diligent while my Mama prefers the opposite. Mama smiles while Papa is a poker face. Papa is thrifty while my Mama, well, is usually at the mall. So I am silent but once given the chance to talk cannot be stopped. I love working so as doing nothing. I was nicknamed "sima" short for 'simangot' when I was young. But I smile a lot now that I am not that young mainly because of cheese. When it comes to being thrifty, well I save a lot in order to spend.  And the third is the ME theory - the My Expectations Theory - not my parents, relatives or friends but mine. I am who I want to be. I will not be one of those who would just conform to what society dictates. For I believe in fate. Even before I was born my future was written in the same way that my name was decided 73 years before I was born (my mother was fourteen when she made the decision to name her daughter Mariam) and my life was mapped 68 years before I came into this world (my father was nineteen when he made a promise of good life to his future children). I will spend this life well since it was created with so much thought and history even beyond my years. A pleasant living to all.