2022 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking: Cyril Junior Dim

[Music] cyril jr [Applause] dini [Music] cyril jr dim [Applause] thank you contest chair you're welcome i love that the contest chair sounds more zimbabwean than i do in zimbabwe we speak shona and in this beautiful language we have a very important word that i'd like to share with you today in shona we say n d i n i try it beautiful it means this is me in my language we have one word for this very important phrase this is me this word is special for me now but growing up i wasn't always comfortable with who i was you see even though i grew up in zimbabwe my middle name was a long winding complicated nigerian name because my father whom i never knew was nigerian now yes i may know a nigerian prince or two but back then i didn't want a nigerian name i wanted a cool name like martin luther king jr or contest chair the other kids would make fun of me they said my name was useful as a password they called my middle name memorably forgettable they said my middle name was a curse from black magic i hated my name have you ever hated something about yourself i would argue with mom i would be so mad at her you gave me this name you did this to me and now everybody makes fun of me because i'm different and my mom would look at me and say but son that name is who you are it's special you know your middle name means that what god has done no man can change and i said mom man has changed many things okay look at chihuahuas that used to be a wolf [Laughter] i'm pretty sure i can change my name and i did as soon as i turned 18 i had my middle name removed from all my documents it became my best kept secret and i have not said that name once ever since before i knew it it was 2018 and i'd landed in college not in zimbabwe not even in africa but in the heart of eastern europe it was clear who grew up in the snow and who grew up in the sand [Music] i had never been this different before the fly in the milk it felt like i had taken one step forward and ten steps backwards but then i met nick another fly in the milk but from congo he's got the african boy swag you know low deep voice speaks very slowly he's like mufasa but in slow motion we're in the library one day and nick drops his id and like a good friend i pick it up and proceed to read it out loud including his full name nicholas rollin sweeney bitumi i say dude let's say your name three times and see what happens [Laughter] but i knew exactly how those words must have felt but nick was ready i have never met anybody with my name it was a gift from my grandfather and i like it and we laughed and we got kicked out of the library [Music] but in my heart i was 18 again seeing in nick what i didn't have for myself acceptance and for the first time i started looking around and i realized we're all different even nick was different but he wasn't just different he was special because he accepted himself and for the first time in a long time i wanted to accept myself too i looked myself in the mirror and said in dna this this is me i know that many of you out there at some point in your life have felt uncomfortable being who you are maybe it was your name maybe it was the family you came from maybe it was the school you went to maybe you were tall maybe you were short maybe you have wrinkles freckles maybe you have scars i know that some of you out there know what it is to be different and even if you don't feel it i'm sure you know somebody who does you are beautifully you the only you and no man can change that so let me invite you to make this very important word a part of your language dini this is me for my friends here in nashville and the thousands watching from home say it with me this is me dini beautiful i haven't had the courage to officially reclaim my name but here today i think we can make a step in the right direction i was born cyril jr and this is me dining [Applause] you

Channel: Toastmasters International

Views: 130,363

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Id: lvYu29BpenY

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 21 2022