Yes! Some people do enjoy struggling. They deliberately put themselves into situations where they are in trouble. We call them: masochists! They invented extreme sports like sky diving, bonjie jumping, table topics…

When it’s Table Topic time, most of us, don’t yell, “Pick me!!!” No! It’s only kicking and screaming that we drag ourselves to the front of the room. And sometime the only thing we are capable of is giving the seal speech. You know... the seal speech. Hemm hemm...
And when you’re struggling in that cocoon, a question comes to mind: What was I thinking?

Or, you give a toast to the bride and the groom and because you’re nervous you start shaking. As the champagne goes down your arm, what comes to your mind? What was I thinking!

Even better, you run on stage ready to give the presentation of your life and in the middle of your speech… your train of thought… pulls out of the station without you. When you draw a blank, what comes to your mind? No. You’re not thinking! You’ve drawn a blank!!!

This happened to me when I was in front of 300 people for a speech contest. You know what’s nice when you’re in the middle of a memory blank? It’s that you struggle, you struggle, and THEN… you struggle some more!

I recalled the advice of a fellow Toastmaster: “When you draw a blank, breathe in, smile and wait.” So I did. Nothing happened. I walked a few steps and … still nothing! I went on improvising a few lines and finally it ALL came back to me… when I sat back in my chair.

At the end of the contest, someone said to me: “Ah… Mr. Gamache, I love the way you use pauses!”

Yes it was a funny moment but it was not a funny speech. My speech was about a time in my life in which I felt trapped in a confining cocoon; a time I was unwilling to continue to fight; a time I tried to kill myself. Thank God, I was a failure at that too.

From that dark and desperate moment, I learned the power of the struggle as did someone else who heard me that day.

That person approached me after my speech, shook my hand real hard and just said, “Thank you. I needed to hear this.”

A few weeks later, I met that same person again. - How are you? - I am better now. - What do you mean… better? - Forget it. - No. Please, tell me. The person looked at me straight in the eyes and finally whispered: I was contemplating suicide myself. Thank you.

My failed speech, was for one person, perfection. My failures, my struggles that once gave me a reason to die, now give me, and at least another person, a reason to live.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we all live in a never-ending series of cocoons.

The question is do you want to stay trapped inside, or will you struggle to be free.

Your cocoon may be fear, it may be doubt, it may be …anything…that you struggle with. But struggle, you must. For it is the struggle that builds strength.

It’s how you learn to grow. It’s how you learn to be free. It’s how you learn...to fly.

Mister contest chair