Just Crank It!
This is the second speech I delivered when I joined QSI Toastmasters Club in 2017. In Toastmaster Club, we call it “Organize Your Speech”. The goal of this project is to select an appropriate outline which allows listeners to easily follow and understand your speech.
Can I ask you a question? Can I? Who among you rides a bike? Who among you loves to bike when you were a kid? I guess most of us if not everyone, while we were young, insisted our parents to buy this two-wheeled machine?
I remember when I was 6 or 7, BMX is a hype. Everyone wants a BMX, you custom them, you do tricks with it. But for me, all I want is to know is how to ride a bicycle.
So my father bought me a green BMX bike with trainer wheels on. It was one of the happiest days of life. I immediately ride the bike and try pedaling. My father taught me how to pedal, how to maneuver the handlebars and how to use the brake whenever you want to stop. And so I practice and practice every day until it becomes a norm to me.
Days have passed, I realized I need to go to the next level. I need to learn how to ride a bike without the trainer wheels.
It was hard. I didn’t know that it is hard to balance without the trainer wheels. Every time I tried, I looked down at the pedal and see how I crank it two to three times until I lose my balance and fall. So days after days, I manage to move 2 meters, 3 meters, 4 meters then stop. I was improving but not the way I wanted to be. I want to ride longer distances and to stop in my own free will.
Bruised and unhappy with my progress, I complain about why I cannot make it. Then something unbelievable happens.
One afternoon, when I was practicing, one of our neighbor Ka Noni, was watching me how I ride my bike. He sees my hardships, my pain. (Haha). He passed by and talk to me and said in Filipino,
“ Brian, pikit ka ‘tas pumedal ka.” (Brian, close your eyes and crank the pedal.) and then he go away.
Without questions, without hesitation, I did what he said. I close my eyes, I started to crank the pedal and started moving. As I move, I felt the breeze blowing through my shaggy hairs. It was calm and quiet. Then when I pull the brakes, open my eyes and I looked back.
All I can say is, “Wow, I did It!”
As I was writing this story of mine, I would like to highlight two things that we can relate in our everyday lives.
You can move forward only if you look forward.
You should keep your eyes in front and to see where you are going. You cannot move forward by looking down. You must keep your head up high and see the world around you.
You will fall. You will fail. You will feel the pain. You cannot escape the reality. But it is in this failure that you will gain the valuable lessons that you can use as a ladder to your success.
Someone will be there to help you out of nowhere
With or without asking for it, there will a Ka Noni that will pass by in our lives and teach us and tell us about life. And I believe in that. Like for me, it teaches me how to Let Go and to Let God. Maybe someday, somehow you meet him or you already met him. Who knows?
[pause]
I would like to end my speech by telling you a notable quote coming from a notable person, a scientist named Albert Einstein. He once said,
“Life is like riding a bicycle, in order to keep balance, you must keep moving.”
End of Speech
P.S. The original title of the speech is “How I Learned to Bike”. It seem to be generic and not so catchy so I decided it to change it to “Just Crank It.” What do you think?
