Today I got told I looked like I had just got back from a funeral.😲 (so not the look I’m going for😂) I assured them I was perfectly fine but maybe just a little overtired. When I explained about my posts she said tonight’s post should say: “Need sleep, going to bed!”
I am going to follow that sage advice.😎 So hope its ok if I cheat a little bit by just posting the first speech that I wrote for Toastmasters last month. 🤗

Hope you all had a wonderful day. 
😍🤗😘🐝🌹🏵🌸💐

Fellow members and guests

The famous John Lennon quote “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” is a quote that has rung very true for me as I look back over my life at all the wonderful plans I attempted to make.

As a basic introduction, my name is Gayle Hill. I am 42 years old, still delightfully single…but haven’t given up hope just yet. I grew up in Port Elizabeth, the youngest of three children. My parents bless them, can only be described as chalk and cheese. My dad was a man of very few words who generally enjoyed time at home and my mother was the proverbial socialite who was a woman of many, many words. As far back as I can remember she was always on the go, her heart was indeed as big as her desire to make conversation. As wonderful as my dad was as a father I came to realise as I got older that he wasn’t the most romantic of people. Being the hopeless romantic that I am and a big believer that a woman deserves a little romance in her life, (especially my mother,) I came up with a plan to correct this flaw in my father. Phone calls home to remind dad of mum’s birthday and their anniversary were the norm. One year I even bought a valentines card myself and posted it to him with strict instructions that he takes my mother out for dinner. On calling the next week I inquired as to whether or not he had stuck to my well-coerced plan. My father assured me he had. My mother, however, seemed a little perplexed and shouted to my father asking him when this “so-called mythical dinner” had taken place.

“Last Friday” came my dad’s reply.

My mother promptly burst out laughing and said: “My darling…your father took me to the church fete and bought me a hotdog. “

“ I’ll have you know I paid R10 for that hotdog!” My father’s stoic voice echoed loudly in the background.

It was at this point that I finally realised that I was definitely not going to be able to teach this old dog any new tricks. I also realised that he might not be the most romantic person in the world but he definitely knew how to make my mother laugh.

As far back as I can remember I have always been good with children. My mum used to say when I was 4 years old I would be the one carrying around the 2-year-olds. Although I adored kids, I never had any desire to be a teacher. Time and time again I would be infuriated listening to people say what a good teacher I was going to make. My plan at that point was simply the anti-plan which meant doing anything other than becoming a teacher.

In 1998 I enrolled to do a Bachelor of Primary Education Degree. To be honest, I’m not quite sure how that happened…but at the end of my second year I suddenly came to my senses and informed my parents that I wanted to quit the degree….and go travelling. My parents put up a compelling argument that I hang in there and just finish the last 2 years. I reluctantly agreed on the condition that they understood, that I was, unequivocally, never, ever going to step inside a school to teach.

On my 24th birthday, I flew out of South Africa ready to start my new life adventurous life of travelling. It quickly dawned on me that 6 weeks off every summer was a definite perk to teaching and maybe it wasn’t the worst thing I could do for my 2-year stint in London.

Fast forward seven years of teaching and some amazing summer holidays travelling the world and I still felt a little lost. While I adored my students I was still plagued by this underlying frustration that I was not following my true calling. When I turned 31 I discovered life coaching. I was completely enthralled and inspired. This is what I wanted to do with my life. The stuck girl wanted to help other stuck people…it sounded absolutely perfect for me. A few months before I finished qualifying as a life coach, I was eagerly plotting my final escape from DREADED school….next thing I know I am being called into my head teacher’s office and being asked if I would like to be enrolled as the school’s numbers count teacher? Numbers count was a new government initiative that aimed at providing extensive daily support for the weakest maths children in the grade 1. When she asked me I have to admit I nearly fell off my chair. I rather sheepishly admitted to her….that I quite frankly a) hated maths but more importantly..
b) was absolutely terrible at it.

My head teachers razor-sharp response was that they weren’t giving it to me because I was a mathematician and she was pretty sure I could cope with 6-year-old maths. ( she made a good point) In her, words she had chosen me because I was warm and patient which was ideally what these students needed the most. I have to admit that for the 2 years that I did this job I absolutely loved it. I realised that one of the reasons I was so overwhelmed in teaching was because I could never help all the children to the best of my ability….something I am sure many teachers can relate to. Now I was working individually with each child planning lessons specifically to their needs and watching their progress was phenomenal.

And so it follows that in 2018 I am now a self-employed learning support teacher specializing…in (wait for it) …. maths. A huge part of my job now days involves many of the coaching skills that I learnt. I love that I am able to help students remove mental blocks and teach them to be kinder and more forgiving of themselves when they make mistakes. I often wonder how my younger self would have reacted had she been told at 16 that she was going to end up being a maths teacher? I am pretty sure she would have been horrified. But I have to smile when I look back at my life and all the plans I attempted to instigate. I think my ultimate life lesson has been to learn to plan less and to embrace what comes to me with an open heart. Of course that doesn’t mean that I don’t still have a host of new plans up my sleeve – but for now, I’m 15 seconds over time, so that will have to be saved for another talk.

Thank you for your time.

Madam Toastmaster