by Joyce Trimble

New parents spend 9 months naming and renaming their expected bundle of joy. I remember I did for our first baby girl. We thought Holly Carlyce was so cute and a little girl would have both parent’s names. If it was a boy, we decided on his name when Carl and I first became engaged. The traditional naming would continue to become a Fourth!

We thought we were done with picking names. Then the comment came that her name would only be appropriate one time of the year. Enthusiasm dashed! A return to naming a little girl. We looked at our influential family members. The name came from an unexpected place…a song was playing on the radio, “Get Along Home, Cindy, Cindy,,,” It was perfect!

When I accepted the honored position of chairing the annual D25 Awards Banquet, I had no inkling the hardest part of the job was getting the name just right to describe our attire for the evening. Men have it easy in my opinion. Tux or suit? Women on the other hand have as many diverse options based upon our personalities as the diverse Journey we each take in Toastmasters.

Formal was never considered! And especially this F-U-N year. I got weary looking at the plethora of choices.

Do we try something new? I think I have seen our District Director in a suit MAYBE 5 times. He is a jeans guy.

That made me think about jeans for the Awards Banquet.

Do you know there is actually a dress attire Denim Formal?

Men could wear a jacket with jeans!

Our incoming District Director could wear her favorite shoes~~boots.

I could buy something new!

For a few moments I basked in the glow of a great idea! The idea was nixed! I am not that daring to propose such a drastic change.

In the process of deciding the name describing our attire, I heard a new term…from a teenager, of course! She was going to an event and would look like a four course meal. WHAT? Yep, there are clothes on the internet for that as well. Google “four course attire”. Some of the choices are … let’s go with interesting, shall we?

Semi-formal seemed limited as I continued to look for the right name for our dress attire on November 10. It felt like our Path was chosen for us rather than allowing us to express our diverse choices.

What’s in A Name…everything! We grow into our names and we investigate the meaning of our names. We don’t need to get cute with D25 Formal or D25 Chic. Sometimes the name is the tried and true, that with which we are familiar in our diverse Toastmaster journey.

Final decision? After 5 – Cocktail.

Your final decision really isn’t about WHAT you wear; rather that you ARE there! Celebrating…Our Steps along Your journey this year.