"You must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all." - John Keating
Mine has taken some finding. I lost it last June, then found it in July (first words via a swedish nose), then lost it again in September (nuked), and got it back again.
After that, I still kept losing it, mostly due to overuse at work (too much talk, not enough work). In my quest to regain fitness this year, I rejoined my touch team and 'Uni Stallions' soccer team, but failed to exercise verbal restraint on the field. Stallions on Saturday, hoarse on Sunday.
So I took on expert help from Helen, my voice & speech specialist at hospital, to improve the situation. Over a course of many weeks I had regular sessions learning how to look after and use my voice in a sustainable way. I found the singing tests difficult, but Helen must have found them excruciating. It was a soundproof room, thereby protecting other staff, windows and other glassware - but there was no escape for her.
The voice sessions were invaluable - they improved my ability but also gave me a sense of purpose about improving. In January I started voice therapy. Two weeks later I rejoined my Toastmasters club. In February I MC'd a wedding. In April, with not a small sense of irony, I judged a speech competition, and gave a speech myself to 100 people at the National War Memorial.
The reward for all this comes from looking back on it. The wedding pics bring back great memories. It was a thrill to read winnerMeaghan Li's writeup of her experience at Gallipoli. And at my final voice therapy session the other day, Helen played back my voice recordings from December, compared to now. My voice still needs care, but you couldn't argue with the improvement.
"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards" - Steve Jobs
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra