Day 5: Different from the rest

Day 5: What makes you different from everybody else?

I've just recently joined Papakura Toastmasters to build my public speaking capability and finesse. The first speech we're having to give is called the 'icebreaker speech' and it's all about yourself.

Here is a rough draft on what I'll be presenting on Tuesday night. I think it shows what makes me different from everybody else. It's been rejigged a bit since I typed it up - parts cut and changed but this is the basic gist of it. God knows the version I present on Tuesday night will differ anyhow.

Enjoy x

It would seem from the brief for this ‘icebreaker’ speech, that this has gotta be easy - right? Hop up here and just wax lyrical about yourself. It’ll be like chatting to old friends. But as I began gathering ideas about myself I began to feel a wee bit guilty...a little ashamed. Who wants to hear about me?
And it is for this reason that I bring to you, my icebreaker speech as a somewhat of a 12 step programme admission.

Follow toast masters (and guests), My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m a nerd.
I love all things nerdy - video games, computers, the internet, social media, books - you name it, I love it!
Video games have always been a passion of mine. I vividly remember being a toddler watching other members of my family playing the Atari (the gaming console of the era) - pitfall, grand prix and pac man among some of my favourite games. Over the years I have graduated  from the Atari through may hours spent playing a variety of game on Amiga 500s, sega master systems, gamecubes, playstations and everything in between and now even as an adult I am an avid gamer. Though I’ve played many games across many platforms my heart will always lie with the mighty Nintendo and it’s signature character Mario.
I read! I read and I read. I read blogs, I read magazines and I even read wikipedia. But mostly I read novels. I often joke that we’ll need to buy a new house because all of my books won’t fit in our current one. Unfortunately, this isn’t such a joke anymore. I really have that many. Enter: Kindle for iPad. Brilliant - thousands of novels jam packed into one little device. There’s just one problem - being interrupted by email and facebook alerts while you’re reading. Bummer.
In recent times with the boom of social media I’ve began to write a blog. I’ve been writing it for about 2 years now and I can’t remember what life was like without it. Think of a blog as an online accumulation of articles (called posts) that I write. I mostly write about my family and myself, I share photos and recipes or tutorials for crafts. As with anything on the next it’s addictive and incredibly time consuming. Not unlike facebook, which I also love. I don’t go very long without updating my status update and checkig out what everyone else has been up to. I couldn’t possibly miss old Aunt Glenys’ uploaded photo album of her latest trip could I?

Which brings me to my next admission - ladies and gentlemen, My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m snap happy.

Around the end of 2010 my husband thought it would be a good idea to buy a very expensive DSLR camera - “I’ll use it heaps” he said, “Having it will make me want to use it and learn.” And you guessed it, he did nothing with it. Which was quite lucky for me, because left unattended I began tinkering...and I’ve never stopped. I’ll take photos of anything, my daughters block creations, a lovely nature shot, my dog, your dog and my daughter..so many of my daughter, in the numbers of around 500-1000 images a month. I’ve been slowly improving, becoming familiar with many of the settings and being able to manipulate things like light, focus and shutter speed.
Last year I joined the Manukau Photographic Society and that’s helped improved my images. I now boast 2 honours and 10 or so highly commended comments on my shots. It’s really hard being critiqued, especially on something so subjective because well...usually I’m the boss.

Which brings me to my next admission - toast masters (and guests), My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m bossy.

I always have been!from playing schools with my nana when I was a kid (I was the teacher of course) to now commanding the almighty vessel which is my household I have always been bossy. It does lend itself well to my chosen career of teaching. I’ve been teaching for 8 years now  - anywhere from Year 3 - 8, just don’t give me those New Entrants, they’re much more bossy than I am. For half of my teaching career I’ve been in middle management meaning I don’t just get to boss children around but teachers too!
Being married and having my beautiful daughter Leah has allowed me to be bossy at home too. My husband Damien and I were lucky enough to have our beautiful daughter in 2011 and she just lights up our life. She’s pretty bossy too... I wonder where she gets that from? I’m sure you’ll hear about them a whole lot more in speeches to come, along with our fur babies.

Which brings me to yet another admission - ladies and gentlemen, My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m an animal lover.

Over the years I’ve owned many pets - cats, too many to count, 2 guinea pigs name Romeo and Julian (Julian because he was a boy and I didn’t want to give him a complex), a rabbit, countless goldfish and even 3 mexican walking fish or axylotls (picture miniature eels with legs). Currently though we only have 2 fur babies residing at our house - Shakespeare, my 12 year old geriatric, prozac enhanced cat who’s been with me through thick and thin and our adorable, if not slightly stupid adolescent rottweiler Jake who loves stealing socks and undies and following Leah around in a love sick puppy fashion. I’ll tell you something for free, You can’t get a better family dog than a rottie.

So I hope these confessions have given you a brief insight inside my nerdy, photographed, bossy animal loving world.

And that brings me to my last admission - toast masters (and guests), My name is Kate Clarke, and my ice breaker is DONE!