How to Give a Successful Icebreaker Speech

“We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives. And, like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow.”

I am Dhenn (Dhenn Mark Espiritu) and

Like all of you, I am the sum total of my experiences and tonight I would like to share some of those experiences that greatly shaped for who am I right now.

1. First, I will start with my parents. My mom never failed to remind us of the important things we need in life. I still remember when I was young, when my mom was mad at us, she repeatedly reminding us that “what if tomorrow we die? Who will take care of your siblings? Who will prepare the meal for you? Who will clean the house? Who will clean the backyard?”

And so as a young man who doesn’t fully understand why we need to learn it, every night I pray to God, “Lord, make my parents live longer because I love them so much”.

My dad was not usually at home because he needs to stay in the camp to fulfill his duty as a soldier.

I grew up as an introvert, I don’t like being with many people as much as I can, I don’t care if I don’t have friends but it changed the time I messed up, almost gave up that one day I was just roaming around a mall near to our hometown, and entered a large room that was full of happy people, and that place re-shaped and change the course of my entire life.

2. Second, church because I’m a Christian. Remember the room that was full of happy people? That was the church. I don’t like to sound like religious or preachy about here. But the church has become my second home and my second family, because when the time I messed up, I almost gave up, that’s when God showed up. In church, I learned everything I needed to know about life, about my purpose, about my significance and my existence. They teach me that the relationship with God and people is all that matters.

In church, I experienced mission trips that entirely changed my life, approaching locals from different nations and building relationships with them for two weeks. It was truly life changing. I never envisioned myself to becoming a missionary perhaps because of fear but then after my mission trip in Myanmar last 2014, it was followed by another mission trips in Thailand in the year 2015 and China just this year.

What else has shaped who I am?

3. Books! I used to hate books. Mentioning the textbooks we carried in our bags for years, they are simply boring. But my hatred for books doesn’t last for a long time. My mentors in church taught me the importance of reading books, a lot of books. I only started reading books at the age of 22, since then I started to have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding. And now I consider myself as a bookworm because the smell of book for me is addicting and I love to collect books that I’ve read and dreaming myself one day to have my own library at home.

Books have shaped my mind and change my perspective towards life. I’ve become to be more optimistic than pessimistic.

4. lastly, is Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, I’ve been working with HPE for 3 and a half years already, first as a Level 2 Support and just this year in my new role as an Automation Engineer. In the past, I’ve worked with two different companies both are great but in HPE, I did not only grow professionally but also personally. What I love about HPE was its culture. The culture of empowering people to achieve both their career and personal goals. Plus HPE is like a campus, employees have the opportunity to join different clubs and initiatives being offered.

In HPE I also had the opportunity to join the toastmasters. I joined toastmasters because my mentor influenced me to join. She is an author, she told me that she was like me when she was just started, introvert, and she shared how she cried in front of the audience during her first speech. Because of that, I searched google about the club. Then a colleague told me that she is a member of toastmasters, so I joined meetings not just once but thrice as a guest than finally signed up as a member. And I am looking forward to developing my speaking and leadership skills in this club.

And that how I was shaped as a person, speaking in front of you.

Going back to my point earlier, we are the sum total of our experiences, be they positive or negative, they bring out the best or worst in us and make us the person who we are today and what we will be in the future.