Content
As Aristotle put it, know thyself is the source of wisdom. To start with that, I am not so sure if talking about myself should be really that easy as stated in the Toastmaster manual.
Toastmaster, dear toastmaster fellows and honorable guests, I believe it would not be too interesting if I just simply take out my resume, read it, and explain item after item. Therefore, I would love to introduce myself through a story. The story is very special even to me, for I had no memory of it, not until I heard it from my uncle and my parents. Why? Because it happened to me when I was only 2 weeks old.
2 weeks after I met this world, my parents brought me back from the hospital. My grandparents were very happy to meet their second grandson, and everything seemed just perfect at that time. Perfect…until two days later.
2 days later, my mother found something strange about me. I started to vomit whatever they fed me. My eyes turned yellow, and what terrified them most was that I started to urine blood. They were so scared that they couldn’t wait any longer and rushed to the hospital.
The first doctor couldn’t identify the reason why I got into that situation, but my parents chose not to give up. They asked if any other doctor would love to help and did some checkups. Few hours later, the only American doctor came and identified that I may have G6PD deficiency.
So what’s G6PD deficiency? In Chinese it’s called 蠶豆症. People with this genetic disease have different red blood cells. They cannot have horse beans, smell mothballs, and have to avoid a quite long list of medicine use. If they fail to follow the rules, their red blood cells will start to break and melt, causing great burden to the liver, that’s why patients’ eyes would turn yellow, and the melted red blood cell would urine out of the body through the major metabolism system kidney.
I was born and grew up in Yunlin, which is the biggest farming county in Taiwan. To prevent from unwanted insects from coming into the household, mothballs were placed all over. To a small infant, the dose is certainly too high for that small body. Oh, believe me. 26 years ago I was a small infant, too.
The correct diagnosis did not mean the termination of the problem. It just meant the source of problem was finally identified. When all the doctors there knew that the only solution to the problem was to change all the blood in my body, there was a second problem to be solved: no doctor was willing to operate for me because the mortality rate is 50%.
My mother burst into tears and lost control for she thought she would lose me. My father knelt down and begged for help. To operate or not to operate, was not the question for us since we had no other option but to give it a try. Finally, the foreign doctor who identified my disease nodded and decided to help with my parent’s signed agreement on not suing him even the operation failed.
They signed with great gratitude, and the operation was carried out. Blood donated by my father and my uncle came in from my navel, and went out from my ankle. I recovered, thanks to the courageous doctor to take the responsibility and followed the Hippocratic Oath he took and my parents and uncle’s love and support.
So, what influence has it on me? I learned from the doctor that if I am the only person who can get the job done, even I have to do it with facing great danger and risk, still I will go. Not to mention if there is barely risk, then definitely I would do anything that I can help. From the love the support I received from my parents and the doctor, I know it so well that I am destined to come to the world to help others, just as they helped me when I was weak.
That’s why I joined the Emergency Medical Technician volunteer when I was in college. In those years, I soaked my hands in the blood and helped people come out from the car wreckage. I pressed the chest and did CPR for those who were in diabetes coma. I bandaged bleeding heads and send them to the hospital. That’s why I became high school teachers few years ago, for I believe knowledge is what can truly empower people to head toward higher dimension. That’s why I am doing my master in the Institute of Education right now, because I am working on an educational application that can truly make some difference to the society.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present you Roy Lee, who has a face willing to smile, ears open to listen, and hands ready to help. I would also love to dedicate this speech to my parents, my uncle, and to all those who have been so brave and stand out to take the responsibility to help others. This is for you. Toastmaster.
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Improvement suggestions from evaluators
1. Time Control.
2. Talk more stories in Ci Ice breaking instead of only one.
3. Shorten the conclusion, end with "hands to help".
4. Slow down a little bit.
5. Tell us more about yourself.
6. It should be operate "on" somebody, not operate "for"
7. More vocal variety and eye contact on the whole area instead of only one.
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Won the prize: most improved speech.
