Ice Breaker Speech (#1 Toastmasters)

Hello everybody,

I am Nicolas. For already more then 10 years, I’m working in the geographical sector. So I am making maps, digital applications based on satellite or aerial imagery. You may know one of my projects: the thermographic maps taken over Antwerp to check the quality of your roof insulation? Recently, I quit my job to become a social entrepreneur in smart maps. So as I am a geo-man, I would like to involve you in my ice breaker speech and turn it into a small ice breaker quiz. I will test your geographical knowledge of certain locations that were important in my live? So if you know the place, just shout! Ok?

I was born in a place where the air is still fresh, clean and even a little bit salty and traffic jams are exceptional. A place where they speak officially the same language as here in Antwerp, although you can discuss on that. The city where I went to school still has a top football team at the highest league next year. So no, not in Antwerp, but in ...  Zuienkerke of all places. Close to Bruges, “Brugge”, “Bruhhe” ...

I had a normal and nice youth. My 12 matchbox cars were the only toys I had, but I had one magical and huge playground: the country side! My father had, as a kind of hobby, a small farm, so I just played outside all day long; “buten speeln van s’nuchtens toe s’avonds”. For the rest: some soccer and later on horse riding and bird watching! Fantasic!

There is a saying that goes like this: “We did not stop playing because we became adults, but we became adults as we stopped playing.” So, being 36 years old, I am doing all I can to keep on playing: I still play “football”, or something similar with my old friends of the university and with my two little boys I play again outside in the garden.

An important year in my live was the year that I became 19. Then I went to the university, “op kot” in the major student town in Belgium (??  …). It was a year of extremes. On the one hand, I had a fantastic year with all my new friends and I met Inge, who seems still not to be fed up with me. But on the other hand, my world tumbled down as my father passed away.

By the way, I studied bio-engineer, better now as agricultural engineer. A great thing about this study was also the opportunity you got to see the world. For more then 1 year I was abroad. And now the quiz is really starting … For one thesis I did some study on small animals that live in bananas in a fantastic country in Central America. A country that has no army and is well-know for his huge biodiversity … (capital: San José). I interviewed in another thesis local farmers in a neighbouring country of Mexico, with the capital having the same name as the country; the Maya culture … : Guatemala. And during an Erasmus exchange, I was, poor guy, “forced” to go to this sunny coastal city, the third city in Spain, named …Valencia.

But all good things come to end, so finally I had to start working. After an intermediate stop in Brussels, we ended up buying a house in a city without any Toastmaster club, exactly in the middle of Brussels and Antwerp …  Mechelen!

And to end up with, I will have 3 children of which 2 of them are not born in Belgium. Kas, the eldest, now almost 6, was born during a week-end away in our smallest neighboring country ... Luxembourg; The middle men is Zep; 4 years old and number 3 is born already, but that is all I now for the moment. We are awaiting more news on our adoption child. He/she will be from the horn of Africa, from the only country in Africa never colonized.  Some well known inhabitants were Lucy, Haile Gebrselassie, Emperor Haile Selassie, the spiritual leader of the Rastafa and reague… Ethiopia!

Take the risk (my first speech at Toastmasters)

Hello everybody,

I am Nicolas. I am new at Toastmasters. Something like a big month ago, I came here for the first time. It was a nice experience, but at the same time: scary!

Scary because the level of the speakers was so high and I did not dear to do any table topic until now. I was afraid to fail.

And that is also exactly what I want to talk about today, being afraid to take the risk.

Because if you think about it, that is how it goes in our success-driven society. Success is the norm, failing is not an option. And if you fail, it is always your own dawn fault. So, we are afraid. Afraid that we break a leg. Afraid to loose money. We are afraid that the police will come. Afraid that people will laugh with us …

So, we teach ourselves, and even worse, we tell our children, not to take any risks anymore! Don’t climb that three, you can fall of; don’t throw with that snow ball, the window could get broken and even worse in Antwerp, you can get a fee for that …

That is of course, the wrong message. Because it is only by doing new things, taking a risk that we learn to know our environment and ourselves better. It is like these big turtles that you find in Southern America: “They can become very old, but they can only advance when they stick out their head!”. So everybody, once in a while stick out your head.