"5'1" and Still Growing" is the first speech I gave in Toastmaster's.  The speech was given on Wednesday, 11/4/09, to a group of about 20 Toastmaster's club members, who also work for Chase.  The first speech given is usually the Ice Breaker speech which is all about the speaker.  This speech is meant as a way for the speaker to introduce themselves to their club members.  Toastmaster's is a club for people who want to improve their speaking and leadership skills. If you are interested, you can go to the Toastmaster's International site and join and then find meetings held in your area.

I won Best Speaker out of 3 on Wednesday, even though the two other speakers are more experienced in Toastmaster's than I am.  I was so excited and hope to continue to excel and learn to reduce my "Uh"s and "You know"s. :-)
 

5'1" and Still Growing
by Krista Pugh

One day, when I was about 5 years old, I lay crying in a Fort Worth emergency room.  I’d been rushed in by my single mom when a splinter in my foot got severely infected.  In the midst of my mom’s frantic worry, surely wishing my father was there to help her, and my frightened cries of pain, a kind doctor asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I choked through my tears that I wanted to be clown.  I think I was delirious at the time. :-)  But, on some level I knew that clowns were around to make people laugh and make them happy, and at that moment, that’s all I wanted.  I may have been happier if my big sister had been there to hold my hand, but that was during a time we were separated because of a custody battle.  So, I guess the comfort of a clown was the next best thing in my head.

As a kid, each time someone asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” my answer would be different.  I was a kid who thought that there were endless possibilities out there.  One day I’d want to be a singer, then an actor, or a writer, or, a psychiatrist, or businesswoman, or even an ice skater.  Luckily, as I got older, I weeded out a lot of the possibilities as I found out who I am, what I’m good at, and what really fulfills me. 

Before I came to work for Chase a couple years ago, I worked as a production assistant and writer in local television news. .In the beginning of my time in TV news, I was starry eyed and when I stood behind the camera taping the anchors and reporters in the studio, I daydreamed about being behind the desk myself, reading the stories of the day, with my hair perfectly quaffed, make up professionally done, revered and respected.  However, as the time there went on and I learned more about the profession, with all its’ long, strange hours, harrowing tragic scenes and stories, I realized that if I wanted a life filled with more than just work, if I wanted a strong marriage someday and kids with my boyfriend Shaun, being a reporter or news anchor would make all of that much more difficult.  Most of the reporters I worked with had been divorced and most of them went home lonely at the end of a long night or early morning.  I really enjoyed working directly with the news team, but each day at work brought a new tragic news story, or a few of them, to the forefront of my brain.  One night, there was a car chase that ended in the suicide of the driver of the getaway car.  I witnessed the man die on camera, off the air.  That was only one of the many tragedies I witnessed weekly.

I told most people that I was leaving news for the logical reasons that I wasn’t earning enough money and they didn’t have any full-time positions open.  That was all true, but if I’d still loved news, I would have stayed in it.  But, I didn’t love it anymore, I dreaded it.  I didn’t like who I’d become. I was harder, I was jaded, I was depressed, and I had lost a lot of my hope in humanity.  So, yes, it may seem like a huge jump to go from writing TV news to working for Chase where I write business communications.  But, here, I don’t see death everyday.  And I don’t see destruction. I like life much better that way.

In my life now, I try to appreciate the good things in my life.  Although I wish I could have had my sister around more growing up and had met my two big brothers earlier than the age of 13, I can say that I’ve truly learned to appreciate what I have and who I have in my life. I’ve become successful in life by overcoming adversity and maintaining strength, so I’m actually appreciative of the adversity because it helped shape the person I am today. 

Physical and mental adversity also played a big part in my life, even when I didn’t realize it.  I’ve always been a fairly healthy eater, but in August of 2008, I learned that some of the so-called healthy foods I was eating, like whole wheat bread, were inadvertently poisoning me almost daily.  After suffering from stomach problems, brain fogginess, trouble concentrating, physical ailments and neurological symptoms for more than 10 years, I finally learned that I have Celiac Disease.  Celiac is an autoimmune disorder in which my digestive system can’t process gluten which is a binder found in wheat, rye or barley.  I will save more details on this complicated disorder for another speech, as the red light is not my friend.  The basics of it are that I have drastically changed my diet and amazingly have felt better physically and mentally this year than I have since I was a kid.  I’m eating right, staying healthy, loving my family and friends, working, writing and creating.  It’s safe to say I’m as happy as a clown.