What’s the scariest way to spend 120 seconds? Not bungee-jumping, spider-purging or opening your Telus bill. For some the scariest two minutes is their first crack at Table Topics.

Table Topics is of course the one unstructured part of a Toastmasters meeting. That’s where you have to stand before the group and speak on a topic you’ve just been given: no prep required or allowed: just chutzpah. Often visitors to TM meetings will Take the Fifth at this point in their first meeting, choosing instead to quietly watch from the safety of their chair. But on Wednesday all three newcomers, when offered the Table Topics challenge, said, “Hell, yeah!” Okay, maybe it was more like: “Um…okay.” But Katherine, Alison and Tai, they did it.

They cooked, in words, elaborate fantasy meals that had the group salivating. They shared their philosophy of food and health and the social dimension of mealtime. (Debra, Table Topics Master, gave everyone a food question; possibly she had missed lunch.) They brought to the task that slightly nervous-edgy energy that often coaxes the best out of us all.

We hope all three will join VanCore. But even if they don’t, they learned — and we were all reminded of — a great lesson. It’s always better to go for it than not.

Proceed boldly. No regrets.