are you really listening?

Shout out to our guests of the evening: 

​- Blaire
- Bianca
- Aditia
- & Laura

for coming out and experiencing the amazing, awesome, and occasionally strange Toastmaster club we call SF Toastbusters. 

Our theme of the evening called "Active Listening", was lead by our very own Arjan who came up with the idea based on...something I forgot (yes, I know it's ironic that I wasn't listening entirely, give me a break I was writing a bunch of stuff down). 

To start off the meeting Arjan handed out white pieces of blank paper. Then, he had us write down everything that was on our minds, anything. So here's what I wrote down: 

"Dinner"
"Post Malone"
"Oh shit, I'm shaking"

Then, he had us crumple up that piece of paper and throw it across the room. This was a great way to figuratively say, "screw you thoughts in my mind, I'm going to be actively listening!"

After that wonderful exercise we had another moment where we broke off into pairs to put into practice some active listening. 

Some things that Arjan pointed was how active listening requires us to be fully engage to the point where we can paraphrase and even include feedback. He had us talk about what our dream job would be or what we would ideally want to go for Holiday. 

Me being me, I really didn't know what I'd do, but nonetheless I babbled on about random stuff while my partner had to take it all in (sorry Linda). 

And of course, the highlight of the evening, where we got to learn more about our two members Linda and Libby!

They were vulnerable and graciously share with us their stories and that captivated all of us. They spoke about things we could we really relate to that involved their personality, their character, and overall willingness to take a chance on something new and exciting.

Great job both of you on your first speech and looking forward to hearing many more! 

With all of that being said folks I wish you all a great week and remember, stay actively listening my friends!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: NO Toastmaster Meeting Next Week! (November 20th, 2018)