1st Milestone Achieved!

I won my TM club's International Speech Contest.  It was close though. 

The feedback I got highlighted what I was concerned about in the speech.  The front end was weak and needed a stronger tie in to the main body and close.  Also, I was told to pick up the pace on my pauses.  I believe it was due to two reasons:

1.  First time the speech has been given live
2.  I panicked a bit when I wasn't seeing the green light turn on, which made me worry I didn't have enough to meet the minimum time.  I was wrong, as I was only about 6 seconds from 7 minutes.

Several things to mull over for the next draft:

1. Make it more current to what is going on the economy and tying it to the fact that Op Santa began in the middle of the Great Depression and we are in the middle of  what is being called the Great Recession.
2. Possibly changing/dropping the non-verbal intro.
3. Carl's resonating comment:  Emphasize "hole in my life" feelings which adds "oomph" to how I filled it at the end.
4. Remembering its a journey of discovery.