One of the most common questions children often hear is, What do you want to be when you grow up?  A child who grew up in a family of doctors might say, “I want to be a doctor like my dad.”  

Our environment and experiences we were exposed to growing up greatly influences our career choices. And that’s what Giselle demonstrated in her speech at this week’s Vancore meeting (2/16/22).

When Giselle was five years old, an F2 Tornado swept through her Manitoba town.

She knew it was bad when she saw someone’s front door blew by.

Her mother snapped into action. “Giselle!” she barked. “Go up stairs and watch to see where our trailer blows to.”

Of that spectacularly bad advice, a career was born.

Giselle is now a government climatologist, and has parlayed her childhood fascination with tornados into a career advising on extreme weather events.

As Giselle told her story, we saw how her early experiences can have a bearing on her “dream job”. It’s hugely inspiring to see how an F2 Tornado experience can influence a career choice.

And that’s the yarn we all got to hear at our Wednesday meeting. One of the best things about Toastmasters is we get to hear each others’ origin stories.

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Come try out your stories and hear others’ stories come alive.