My Toastmasters career may be measured in two parts (so far). I first joined Toastmasters in 2009 following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. I worked my way through what is now called the Legacy Program, and seven years later completed my Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) designation. That was the first leg.
After my dad passed away in 2015 my mom begged me to leave the “culty” organizations to which I was giving a lot of my time. I understood where she was coming from. She had lost her lifelong partner (her husband, my father) and needed me to be around more.
The “culty” organizations to which I was giving my time were Landmark and Toastmasters. I was at a cross-roads with Landmark – my continued involvement in the Team Management and Leadership Program (TMLP) required a payment that I simply did not have the means to afford. I promised my mom I’d stop doing Landmark.
However, I was nearing the completion of my DTM at Toastmasters. I negotiated with my mom – I would keep doing Toastmasters for a few more months, long enough to complete my DTM, and then let my membership expire.
After my mom passed away in 2018 I was ready to start rebuilding the next stage of my life.
Part of the vision I had for the part of my life in which I no longer had living parents, was to rejoin Toastmasters. Thus I began the second leg of my Toastmasters journey.
By this time Toastmasters International was set to retire the Legacy program in favour of their new Pathways program. I decided I would rejoin Toastmasters and work my way to a second DTM which this time would be a Pathways DTM. The DTM that I’d already earned – I now refer to it as my “first DTM”.
I’ve been a newly rejoined Toastmaster for about two and a half years now. I’ve been working through the Visionary Communication pathway and am two projects away from completing Level 5. Those two projects are Develop Your Vision and High Performance Leadership.
I’ll write more about what I’m doing for each of those projects in future posts.