the rape of the Mind

I had a break last Saturday.

My boss -slash-mentor Pocholo Gonzales had a talk at the Claret School of Quezon City for the HR Learning EB 5, a part of a series of events that unite Human Resources Officers and give them the chance to learn different things together through talks. On that day, he was asked to talk about “Goal Setting” since the event’s theme was “Setting Goals for 2012.” And the thing was, the night before the talk, we were chatting about his presentation and he told me that he would give me a chance to speak in front as well. He told me what to talk about so I could prepare. Of course I was a bit nervous.

Although I had a lot of experience in public speaking, I thought it was really something different. Though I already experienced delivering the valedictory in elementary and high school in front of hundreds of people including some important people in our city, joining and winning in extemporaneous speeches, campaigning for college student council elections, and even giving a talk to a class about voice acting; I still felt some kind of thrill because it would be a lot different from them.

When the time for the talk came, I realized that the audience was not composed of students but of HR officers. I was not really aware of what the event exactly was until we got there and yes, I was shocked. What I was expecting were students who were usually the audience of my boss since he usually talks about voice acting, marketing, and youth development.

But eventually, it went fine. I was called in front and I spoke in front of the professionals and it felt good because they listened to me. Plus, it was really such a pleasure seeing them responding positively and I knew right at that moment that they were convinced. My moment was not long, though. But it was certainly a great chance. It made me realize that public speaking, most especially when done with substance, is indeed fun. It also made me more interested in becoming a motivational speaker in the near future.

After the talk, Sir Choy told me that I did a good job. Yahoo! That really meant a lot since it came from my mentor, the one and only VoiceMaster in the country. And like what I mentioned earlier, because of those people who believed in me and in what I said there in front—those people who were convinced and never really cared about my age. Now thinking of all these, I can really say that I really want to be a speaker. I will also be a speaker.  

*Title is inspired by the idea on how to write goals properly. It was actually the content of my talk. To know more about this, click HERE.