Choosing Growth on Purpose: Why I Joined Toastmasters During a Season of Leveling Up
How investing in confidence, community, and voice became a strategy for moving beyond survival
There are seasons in your career when survival is the goal. You focus on staying afloat, staying relevant, staying steady. And then there are seasons when you realize survival is no longer enough.
I’m in that second season.
With economic uncertainty all around us, it would be easy to shrink—to play it safe, to wait until things feel more stable. Instead, I made a deliberate choice. I decided to place myself in environments designed to stretch me, strengthen me, and help me grow beyond where I currently stand.
That decision led me to Toastmasters.
I didn’t join because I was failing. I joined because I wanted to get better.
I wanted to be more confident when I speak, more grounded when I share ideas, and more comfortable using my voice in rooms that matter. Not just public speaking in the traditional sense, but speaking with clarity, presence, and conviction.
What Toastmasters has given me goes far beyond speeches.
It has offered community. It has reminded me that confidence doesn’t always look the way we assume it does. I’ve met people from all walks of life—individuals who appear polished, accomplished, and self-assured, yet still carry quiet doubts. Being in a space where growth is normalized, feedback is constructive, and effort is celebrated has been grounding.
It has also reinforced something important: confidence is a skill, not a personality trait.
You don’t wake up with it fully formed. You build it through repetition, reflection, and a willingness to be uncomfortable in spaces that are safe enough to grow in. Toastmasters creates exactly that kind of environment—one where people are not performing perfection, but practicing progress.
I’m also deeply aware that growth rarely happens alone. When I decided to join Toastmasters, my dad stepped in and helped cover the first six months. Not because I lacked direction or drive, but because belief doesn’t end when childhood does. Sometimes support looks like someone saying, “I see what you’re building. Keep going.” That kind of encouragement stays with you. It reminds you that even as adults, we are still shaped by the people who believe in our next chapter.
This matters to me deeply, not just professionally, but personally. I am intentional about modeling growth for my daughter. I want her to see that leveling up doesn’t mean pretending you have it all figured out. It means being honest about where you want to grow and taking steps toward it, even when circumstances are uncertain.
Joining Toastmasters wasn’t about adding another credential or filling time. It was about choosing myself—choosing environments that support development instead of depletion, and investing in skills that compound over time.
I don’t want to merely survive this season. I want to build toward a future where confidence, clarity, and opportunity intersect. And that starts with showing up differently, even when it feels uncomfortable.
Growth doesn’t always come from external breakthroughs. Sometimes it comes from walking into a room and saying, “I’m here to get better.”
That is the season I’m in. And I’m choosing it on purpose.
