by District Director, Emily Murray, DTM
With November comes Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving comes reflection on what we are thankful for. You are not really surprised by my theme this month, are you? It’s pretty much a given in November.
It’s easy to overlook the abundance of things we have in our lives to be grateful for. Each one of us is different. We all have our specific interests, but we are all human and we are all Toastmasters, which means we also have many wonderful things in common.
This season I encourage you to sit down and make a list. Heck, sit down with a friend or two, or even with your club, and see what kind of list you can come up with. I bet you will find some surprises!
This year, I find myself reflecting on the impact of the mentoring relationships in my life: those who have mentored me, those I have mentored, and others who I have seen in active mentoring relationships. Those who made us, and those who we help make.
For me, when it comes to Toastmasters, what I am most thankful for this year are all the mentors. And here’s the thing about that: we’re ALL mentors in some way. Some of us have been mentors, helping with new clubs, new members, or new adventures. We all serve as casual mentors to fellow members, those on the committees we’re a part of, and those we cheer on during our conversations. Some of us have only recently joined and are mentors-to-be, or mentors-in-training, and I look forward to seeing what impact you will have.
I know that our Division Directors are mentoring our Area Directors, our Area Directors are mentoring their clubs, and our club officers are mentoring their members. Sometimes our members mentor each other- and sometimes our officers! And it’s not just along the chain, it’s across the district!
I also see Committee Chairs mentoring their committee members. I see friends with knowledge or experience mentoring friends for no reason other than being friends. I see new members mentoring experienced members. I see it all, and I know this is what makes this district special, our willingness to selflessly pour into each other.
These mentoring experiences are what is so incredibly special about Toastmasters and what brings us together as a district to help us all do unbelievably wonderful things. It’s really what I think of when I think back to the farmer and the corn analogy that I started the year with, we grow ourselves stronger by helping those around us grow better CORN? Now that’s also appropriate for Thanksgiving, and so we now go full circle to the season, LOL. It’s also the most fundamental part of this year’s focus on Share Your Sunshine. Thank you so much for sharing yourselves to grow us all. We will all be better for it!
Have a Sunny Day!
