THERE ARE HEROES AMONG US!

By Shirley M. Carolan, ATM-G If you look around you I’m sure you will come up with at least one hero who has impacted you, or your world, in some way. Whether you know that person intimately or he/she is an acquaintance, it doesn’t matter. What matters is how has that person impacted you? Do they know how you feel about them or what they did for you to think of them as a hero? Heroes come in all shapes, sizes ages, etc. and can be male or female. For the benefit of this article I am purposely not including our wonderful 4 legged friends, many of whom rank as heroes too. My Toastmaster club, Tick Talk Toastmasters, has such a hero in our midst. He’s a young marine stationed at Camp Pendleton and is a part of the “wounded warriors” contingent. He attends our meetings in what may be called “fatigues.” His young, boyish, handsome face belies the unspeakable war action he has seen having served four tours of duty in Iraq. He holds the rank of Sergeant, but looking at him and hearing him speak you’d think he was right out of college. Last week, I had the honor of evaluating his 10th manual speech which means he is now eligible for the “Competent Communicator” Toastmaster award. He detailed how he had wanted to be a marine, the training he underwent and the tears of joy he experienced upon reaching that goal. Then he used colorful slides projecting his journey in the marines. He used a road with darkened clouds as a metaphor for projecting the “road” of his life” ending with his healing from PTSD by means of holistic medicine and a brighter “road” with dissipating clouds. His speech, presentation and slides were so well done that Sgt. Rob has been asked to be one of our guest speakers at our Open House this week. We are all so proud of him, even though he is very unassuming and comes across a little shy. I can’t wait for the public to meet him and see that we have a hero in our midst! We meet at Carlsbad by the Sea, 2855 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad, Ca and this week only at 6:30 PM. Refreshments will be served, plus you’ll get to see how Toastmasters works! Who is your hero and why? I’d like to hear about them. Shirley M. Carolan, ATMG Writer ● Speaker ● Artist artistwithaflair@att.net Phone/Fax: 760-732-0663 http://www.shirleycarolan.com http://www.angelscross.blogspot.com http://www.smcarolan.blogspot.com Copyright© 2012 by Shirley M. Carolan. All rights reserved. To reprint any part of this article simply contact Shirley Carolan at artistwithaflair@att.net. Thank you