Prison Break

Toastmasters has always been a part of my life. Last month I took part in TM International speech contest. Well the below speech took me up to the divisional contest wining club and area levels. I couldn't make it to the District level but had a great time enjoying the speeches of Japanese. I must say they are amazing with the natural body language and vocal variations. Given below is the text of my speech.

Prison break

I’m a prison breaker

… shhhhh…

and that’s what I like to do with my life… Not only I break prisons but also I enjoy helping others to break out of their prisons.

Contest Chair, Ladies and gentlemen

The prison that I’m going to talk about today is not made out of stone and steal. Instead it’s a prison that exists in our minds. Many people tend to make groups I’d rather call them prisons based on their similarities such as country, race, religion, gender, school and so on. Then we label these prisons and set some boundaries to these prisons. These prisons limit us from fully embracing the wonders of the world. That can be quite harmful.

For me this prison braking habit started several years ago in Bangkok Thailand. My partner in crime was none other than my elder brother. Right after I finished my high school I went on a trip to visit my brother who is living in Thailand. At that time I used to be picky about almost everything in my life. When it came to food I was kind of a person who would say ‘no spice no life’ .It wasn’t only about food. It was also the same with books, movies and even the people I associated. My brother made it a point to tease me to death.

One night he took me to restaurant and ordered something special. I asked him what it was and he told me it’s a special chicken dish. Well it didn’t look like chicken but I ate it anyway. To tell you it was quite tasty. Mmmm!! Yummy!!

After the dinner he told me ‘do you know what you ate right now?’ I said ‘Oh ya I love that chicken’. Then he had a good laugh and told me.

‘Congratulations!! You just ate a frog’.  

A what??? A frog!!! You must be kidding me.

Well, He wasn’t.

I was totally furious with my brother and I was cursing him for making me eat a frog. After a while he came to me looked at my eyes and told me. ‘I have news for you sister, If you would continue to be picky like this, you would never survive the day you step out of our country.

Those words hit me and hit me really hard. In fact he was telling the truth. On that day I truly understood that for so long I have been a captive of my own comfort zones.  For me at that moment life just began. I started to take different paths in life and one of them became my life long career.

The story of my career begins with a simple question
How bad is it for a woman to become an engineer? Specially, a mechanical engineer? Whenever I answer the question “what is your major” there was very few who did not raise their eye brows and said “You are a mechanical engineer? Were you the only girl in your department? “, “Why did you choose mechanical Engineering?” those are the same old questions that I had to answer for the past few years of my life.
All around the world mechanical engineering is one of the fields with the lowest percentage of women. Do you know the curse of female mechanical engineers? Where ever you go you end up being the only woman. This curse followed me all the way to Japan and even today I’m the only woman in my lab.

So most of my friends warned me about the possible difficulties I might face in a masculine industry. I on the other hand am a wondering soul who was curious about the machines and the magic behind them.. Therefore against all odds I decided to become a mechanical engineer.  Well, being a female mechanical engineer was not so difficult as everybody predicted. In fact the only difficulty I ever faced as a female mechanical engineer was that there was no ladies wash room in my department.. :)

One of the best prison breakers I have ever seen is my good friend Shinsuke. Shinsuke is a very special differently-abled person. Both of his legs are paralyzed and he has minimum dexterity. He studies European history at the University. He told me that he wants to visit Kazakhstan to study their culture. When he went to a very popular travel agency to plan his trip they had told him that no one has ever been to Kazakhstan through the agency and therefore they can’t recommend any places to visit. Shinsuke didn’t get discouraged he planned his own trip and went there last summer all by himself taking three transits. Well if Shinsuke can what is our excuse.

Therefore ladies and gentlemen Let us break these prisons that bound us from enjoying the marvels of this world. Not with sledge hammers but by experiencing different cultures. For they say “Those who know nothing of foreign know nothing of their own” Ladies and gentlemen take your turn and make your move.

Contest Chair...