FDIP Toastmaster Club -- Member's Corner -- Featured Speech of the Week

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Featured Speech of the Week
This site area is created to give special publicity to our member who was voted as the Speaker of the Day. It is published here to highlight the key strong points of the speech in which the speaker was able to meet speech's objectives.

Me and Myself
Aldrin Panopio
Date presented: October 4, 2002

My name is Aldrin Panopio, already married with only one wife and one baby daughter. You may call me Aldrin or whatever you want. My parents adapted my name Aldrin from the US astronaut Edwin Aldrin a year after the date of his successful journey to the moon. My colleagues here call me Popo. I am the eldest and the only handsome among my four sisters.

When I was young, I did not enjoy much of my childhood days. I have to make my own toys because my parents cannot afford to buy and give me toys. At the age of 9, I was selling dried fish to help my parents in earning a living. At the age of 11, I was still selling but corns and peanuts. I experienced that until the end of my high school year. In spite of my family condition, I was dreaming to be an engineer but my father told that he wants me to become either lawyer or a soldier.

"Lawyer gets rich easily by just lying…otherwise you should become a soldier so that you can protect your sisters. I want you to either study law or enter the PMA." he said.

Then I told him, "Tatay I hate lawyers and I don't need to protect my sisters. By that time I become a soldier they are already married. They don't need a soldier brother to be their protector. What they need is to get married to get protector".

I told him if you want me to become a soldier just do it with yourself. But still my father has insisted. I bowed down to my father's request. I enrolled neither in law nor in military school. I entered Mapua Institute of Technology as a fresh young innocent boy and graduated ahead of one semester. I got a job offer from a manufacturing company just before my graduation.

After graduation I prepared for the board exams. Fortunately, because of prayers and God's plans for my life, I landed as a 12th placer in the mechanical engineers' exam. From my first job I earned five years experience in manufacturing ranging from petrochemicals, electronics, chemicals, and food & beverage. Mostly my manufacturing experience evolves in engineering, maintenance, operations, projects, and commissioning. After a bloody salary negotiation, I decided to transfer to an engineering company here at Fluor Daniel. I have been sitting here for a total of 4 years and 3 months. I belong to the Mechanical department under our energetic manager, Emer Rivera and currently loaned at piping for Hamaca Hydrotest Project.

Another significant event in my life was the time I get married. I tied a knot with my 6-year old girlfriend. I met her somewhere along the way. After we realized that quarrels and rematch were too much, we decided to end our boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. So it ended up nothing but a husband and wife. After wedding, I realized that marriage was not difficult it becomes more difficult as it goes.

Today, we are blessed with pretty and a cute 1-10 month-old baby girl, like her father. My wife is no longer working because she wants to be my servant for life. I love my wife and my baby so much. I found marriage as a gift of God and having a baby is a God's plan to test out patience and endurance. My family is my inspiration. They are the greatest things that ever happened in my life. They are secondary to God.

One of my greatest ambitions is to establish my career and to work in a big multinational company where I can grow as a mechanical engineer and find satisfaction in most aspects of my life. I am envisioning it as a place where I can provide all the needs of my family and a work place where I can retire. My story does not end here it is a never-ending journey.

"We are living on this planet. We must live according to the Lord's plan in our life. A life that is a worth to live for".

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