Loser
I competed in the division contest for Evaluation tonight, and I didn't even place, which was a serious disappointment.
On the other hand, if the speeches that won the speech side of the contest are an indicator of the quality of the judging happening there tonight, not placing is probably a sign that I gave the best evaluation of the night.
The winning speech told a long, drawn out, and ultimately quite boring story all in the third person. 'The man did this, the man did that, blah blah blah.' And then at the end it turns out that the SPEAKER WAS THAT MAN! WOW! I never saw that coming! Who'd've thunk it!
It's the thing I dislike most about Toastmasters competitions. Tired cliches and cheesy framing devices get rewarded. Speeches that are interesting and different get left behind, and instead another rant on the subject of believing in yourself and making your dreams come true gets voted through. The reality is, these speeches are the ones most likely to win the next level of the contests, as well, because this is a problem at every level of the competition, but ugh, it drives me crazy. If there was an original idea expressed in any of the winning speeches, I didn't hear it.
And no, I'm not just bitter. Don't get me wrong, I'm bitter, all right, but I'm not *just* bitter. I've disliked these aspects of TM since long before I ever competed in a contest.