My employer has sent me to Dale Carnegie class and tonight I will complete class eleven. It's more than a class on speeches. You learn different techniques for dealing with stress, relations, and how to work with others and of course how to speak publicly.
Our assignment tonight is to make a speech that involves emotion-any emotion-happiness, sadness, anger, joy. It doesn't matter as long as the speech is between 2 and 3 minutes long and has a point(advice) and benefit (what happens when you take advice).
It's our next to last class and our teacher wants us out of our comfort zone. She wanted us to pick a difficult topic.
If I spoke about something that makes me happy or full of pride, I know I'd blow the time limit. Sometimes, it's just hard for me to shut up especially when I'm bragging on my family. So I chose something that I don't like to talk about. I've practice over and over and not once have I exceeded the time limit; however, I have lost my shit.
So, here's hoping I can keep my crap together for a whole one hundred and eight seconds. Sounds doable, but I've never been accused of being overly stable.
Wednesday May 7, 2014
It was a beautiful sunny morning and I was driving home after working 11 pm until 7 am. I was utterly exhausted and in an attempt to keep myself I awake, I reached for my cell phone and called my mom. She answered and we talked about our family, her chickens, my strawberries, and the upcoming Mother's Day weekend which was just 4 short days away. Before I knew it, I had reached the Buffalo River where I typically lose cell phone coverage. I told her: Mom I'm fixin' to lose cell phone service. I love you and I'll see you this week end.". She told me she loved me too and the phone went dead. A couple of minutes later, I'm pulling in the drive way. As I stumble out of the car, I grabbed the mail on the way in. In the mail was a Mother's Day card from my mom. It made me smile. First of all, it's a Mother's Day card from my mom-and secondly, we just had a 30 minute conversation and she never mentioned it. It was very sweet. I put it on my nightstand and I remember thinking I'll call her and thank her as soon as I wake up. I fell instantly asleep. A couple of hours later, my husband was shaking me awake and muttering something about bad news. I sat up and asked what happened.
My stepdad had come home from work and found mom dead. She was gone. I've beat myself up a million times for not calling to tell her thanks for the card. Maybe she would have told me she felt sick or in pain. Maybe we could have gotten medical help. I'll never know. However, I do know the last words she heard me say were I love you. I'll see you this weekend.
My advice to you is to say the words I love you to those important to you every chance you get. You'll never know when it's your last chance to say them and you'll feel so much better knowing that you did.
No comments:
Post a Comment