The Butterfly Effect

The following is my Stage 2 Toastmasters speech. Although I gave it awhile ago, and I have written a similar post to this before, I felt it was an important addition to my blog this weekend. Now that I’m back in New York, the story I’m telling below is just one of millions. Here each and every person has a searing memory of that day. This is mine:

When a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, does it cause a tornado inTexas? Have you ever examined the decisions and actions that were outside your control but that somehow changed your life forever? Could you pinpoint it to just one day? To one hour? To an instant?…. I can.

The day started like any other – except it was summer reading test day. The bane of every High School student. Each summer we were assigned a couple of novels to read and on the second day back, we were quizzed. The air was warm and the sun was shining as I left the house for school that morning. The weather was so glorious that I wore knee highs with my uniform and didn’t bother with a jacket. I allowed the usual bus to pass me by as I met my friend Tara and we walked the whole twenty blocks – a feat reserved for only the nicest days.

At 8:30am the bell rang and I sat down to the test. I scrawled the date across the top of the page – it said: September 11th, 2001.

Fifteen minutes into the test, the first announcement came over the school PA.

BING BONG Attention students, will those of you with parents working at the World Trade Centre please report immediately to the general office. Thank You.

Not one girl looked up from her test.

Another twenty minutes passed then another announcement from Father Collins came over the PA.

BING BONG. Attention girls, I’m not sure how to report this…. but two commercial airplanes have hit the Twin Towers. Would anyone with parents or family working in the area please report to the general office immediately.

It’s hard to imagine ignoring something like that. But we did. When something that unimaginable happens – your brain probably doesn’t know how to process the information. It’s like reading a word that you don’t know the definition of – you simply skip it and move on to the next one. But reality was about to hit.

The silence of the classroom was broken by the bell for second period and as soon as the door opened, I knew something was seriously wrong. Cell phones were banned in school, yet every girl was on one. There were tear stained faces everywhere I looked – including my friend Tara who’s aunt worked in one of the towers. We hurried to the general office and even though it was complete chaos, one kind secretary let us use the phone to call Tara’s mum. Her aunt, she told us was absolutely fine and had gotten stuck in heavy traffic on the way to work. As she was describing the sequence of events, we still couldn’t visualise what had happened – and then Tara’s mum stopped. She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. One of the towers had fallen…we couldn’t believe it – but it had completely collapsed.

The rest of the school day was like trying to piece together a puzzle while blind. We had no TVs and the radios were all going haywire. Teachers tried to continue with classes, but we all had so many questions that they couldn’t answer. Soon, parents started collecting their daughters one by one and there was no point in keeping school open – so we were sent home.

I should probably explain that I lived in Brooklyn – right across the river from Manhattan. It was far enough away that I couldn’t see the buildings, but close enough that all the cars in the area were covered in ash, like a dull grey snowfall. I can still vividly remember the smell of burning.

I took the bus home – which is normally packed and loud…but that day it was strangely silent. I hopped off at 79th street, not quite knowing what I’d find at home. My Mum would be at work – but my Dad had been planning a trip to Manhattan that morning.

When I got into the house, I called out but there was no answer. The place was empty and I did what anyone would do in a silent house and turned on the TV for a bit of company. What confronted me still makes me feel nauseous almost ten years later. It was a shot of the towers and all of a sudden, a plane crashed through the middle of the building heading straight towards the camera. Finally my brain had something to make sense of and the only thing I could do was cry. As I sat there, not really knowing what to think – my parents arrived home with a week’s worth of shopping. My Dad had been just about to leave for the city when the first plane hit.

The rest of the day was spent glued to the television and receiving worried phone calls from family in Ireland. I don’t remember the exact details as they unfolded. But one image has stuck with me for all these years; the hundreds of people who jumped from the towers, desperate to escape the flames. It was more like a disaster film that life.

After that day, things were very different in New York. People were kinder to their neighbours. There was a greater sense of patriotism. At first the city was angry, broken and scared, but after awhile there was a great sense of determination and strength.

That day shook me to the core for a number of reasons, but most importantly, it was the day my parents decided to leave New York and go home. The city we called home wasn’t safe anymore and my world was turned upside down. It meant a brand new life back in Ireland with new friends, a new school and a complete culture shock. When those hijackers got on those planes, they set off a butterfly effect that changed the lives of millions. For me it meant moving country, for others it meant coping with the loss of a loved one, moving career because their office was destroyed or changing their vote.

If those planes had never taken off, would I be in Ireland today?

If a butterfly flaps it’s wings in Brazil, does it cause a tornado in Texas?

Radio: Because Sometimes Pictures Need a Thousand Words…

I gave my stage 3 speech at Vox Populi Toastmasters last week and I’m so delighted to have it over and done with! 

I really struggled to come up with a topic for the speech – and the objectives of this particular project were to present a general and specific purpose. I kept putting off Radio as a topic because it’s something I do every day of the week and I thought – People won’t be interested in that! But once I wrote the speech and stood up at the top of the room, I realised that most people don’t think about Radio in this way. 

So without further ado – my stage 3 speech…

Sitting on a shelf or in a car dashboard, it’s merely a box full of wires and silicon chips. It may not look handsome, or technologically advanced and its outward appearance fails to portray the magic it contains. But the radio is clearly one of the most ingenious devices ever created.

Radio holds a special significance for us here in Ireland. The first Irish radio broadcast didn’t take place in an RTE studio – oh no – it happened during the 1916 Rising when the rebels broadcast a call to arms from the General Post Office. You see, radio was actually used as a nationalist tool, not just for propaganda but also to distinguish us from UK  in News, Sport, Language and Music. In fact, the first legal station in Ireland began broadcasting in 1926 and was called 2RN, named after the song, “Come back to Erin”. This station eventually became RTE Radio One. In 2006, RTE Radio One celebrated 80 years of continuous public service broadcasting – making it one of the oldest stations in Europe. In 2011 a whopping 85% of us are listening to a wide range of national, regional and local stations on any given day.

So, in an age where technology is advancing at a startling rate – how is the radio still thriving? I’ll tell you how – its continuously available. You can hear it anywhere you like – at home, in the car, in work, in a shop, in a cafe, on the internet or on your phone. And you can listen to it while showering, driving, shopping or flicking through a newspaper. It’s also a medium that allows for dipping in and out with constant updates and continuous playlists. Why would you turn to any other media? It’s been well documented that Television is bad for us – so if you could drag yourself away from that flickering screen – I’m going to outline why Radio is a much better choice.

First off, it’s the only form of mass broadcasting that speaks to ONE PERSON – you. In fact, one of the first things you learn as a radio presenter is never to address your listeners as a group or refer to them as “all of you”, “you listeners” or “the audience”. Instead, presenters connect with us on an intimate level by saying “Hello and welcome to the programme, I hope you’re well” or “We’d love to hear from you – text us now on 55555”.  It is the presenters JOB to bond with the listener. Studies actually show that listening to the radio is usually a solitary activity – and that people think of presenters as undemanding friends who are there for company but don’t need complete and utter attention. There are many examples of this kind of personality in Ireland – including Gay Byrne and the late Gerry Ryan, both of whom commanded an extremely loyal following. Oh it tries…but Television just doesn’t have that level of intimacy.

Radio deserves the top spot because it gives listeners access to up to the minute information. There’s no waiting for the lighting to be right, getting a presenter to makeup or setting up a camera – with radio – once that red light comes on you’re live and breaking news can reach your listeners first. Even with social networking sites developing at breakneck speed – radio has become a point of confirmation and analysis. Take for example the death of Osama bin Laden last week. Millions of people read the news on Twitter but a great deal of those people then went to their radios for confirmation and conversations on the topic.

I’ll give you another example, I was working for Tom McGurk’s show on 4fm during the Eamon Lillis Trial. Lillis was accused of murdering his wife Celine Cawley and the jury weren’t due to return a verdict until Monday. It was Friday evening and only a skeleton staff were running the station. Luckily I was glued to twitter. A journalist in the courtroom tweeted “Verdict coming NOW” at 5 minutes to 6. Even our news desk was shocked! The next tweet said “Manslaughter 10 votes to 2” and after confirming with a courts correspondent we were the first station to broadcast the result. Television doesn’t broadcast news bulletins on the hour or half hour – for up to date information – radio is your medium!

Another way that radio trumps TV is that it is extremely responsive to listeners. YOU CALL IT ANSWERS. Theres a feeling that if you call the radio station – the presenter will answer (and in some cases that happens!) Just look at phone-in shows like Liveline – which has 404,000 listeners! There’s a great sense that if you Talk to Joe on the radio your problems will be solved.

I experienced this first hand working on Newstalk’s Tom Dunne Show recently. A man text in to say that his father had died and that he had wanted his ashes be spread at Cheltenham during race week. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make it over to the UK. So Tom put the call out to listeners and sure enough – someone was kind enough to bring the ashes to Cheltenham and scatter them. Now, if that’s not responsive – I don’t know what is! There’s something less impromptu about Television – TV presenters may read texts, or they might scroll on the bottom of a screen – but it rarely brings people together like that.

Probably my favourite thing about Radio is it’s role as the ultimate storyteller. It can take the mundane and make it into something magnetic. When someone tells a story on the air, there’s a quality in their voice that gives you so much more information than if you were watching them on television. Also, you can’t see them – so you’re hooked into the piece wanting to know what comes next. This brings to mind the 1938 dramatic broadcast of War of the Worlds narrated by Orson Welles. The piece, broadcast on Halloween used a series of simulated news bulletins to dramatise an alien invasion on earth. Following the production, there was widespread panic as some listeners thought the invasion was real. If you haven’t heard it – google it – it is truly one of the great masterpieces of broadcasting. Other great radio storytelling can be found in National Public Radio’s This American Life programme – which is available to download as a podcast. The show takes all kinds of stories from the everyday to the sensational and brings them to life in short acts. When I listen to these stories, I cant help but react physically by laughing out loud or becoming visibly upset – they are truly inspiring.

So to hammer home my point: Radio IS the ultimate medium for news, sport, features, comedy, music and stories. Why watch television when the radio is so much more personal, responsive, instant and imaginative? I’d like to conclude with a quote: “Radio is for the mind, television is for the mindless”

Make me break the ice

A couple of months ago, I became a proud new member of the Vox Populi Toastmasters Club in Dublin. Although I haven’t been able to attend every single meeting (damn you work! ruining my fun!) I’ve been learning so much and have gotten to know a great group of people.

Last week I made my very first speech at a meeting. Every toastmaster does an “Icebreaker” speech to get started. Usually, it’s about yourself and it serves as a 4-6 minute introduction. I made mine last week and it was a number of things: nerve wracking, terrifying and overall brilliant experience.

I’ve been on the stage for as long as I can remember! I started ballet when I was three years old and have done lots of plays and musicals since! But getting up at a public speaking club, in front of a room of adults, talking about my life – OH MY FRICKEN GOD. I thought my knees were going to fall off they were shaking so much. However, I think I managed to mask my mind numbing fear (its the actress in me!) and remembered the entire speech without notes!

So without further ado, my icebreaker entitled: “The Susan Doyle Show”

Good evening Mr. Toastmaster, Members and Guests, you’re all very welcome to “The Susan Doyle Show”. May I take this opportunity to remind you to switch off all mobile phones and the use of cameras including recording devices are strictly prohibited in the theatre. Also please take note of your nearest emergency exit.

The performance will consist of three acts – act one: New York, New York, act two: The Show Must Go On, and act three: Radio Gaga. There will be no intermission, so sit back, relax and learn about three significant parts of my life.

Frank Sinatra once sang “I’m gonna make a brand new start of it in Old New York” and that’s just what my Irish parents decided to do back in 1994 when I was seven. They worried about me adjusting to American life, but before they knew it, I had traded crisps for potato chips and runners for sneakers, I even had a Brooklyn accent. I knew I had totally blended in when in fifth grade I was chosen from two hundred other students to hold the American Flag at assemblies and special occasions. The process involved a ten year old me leading an honour guard onto a stage each morning with a flag twice my size and commanding an auditorium of children to pledge allegiance! [pause] I watched baseball, went to my junior prom, and loved high school but at home – we were typical paddys. My Dad took the piss out of the yanks on a daily basis, my mum complained that the chocolate just wasn’t the same and right up until the day we moved, we totally ignored Thanksgiving – we used to have chinese actually!

When we left in 2004, I cried for a week but in hindsight moving to Ireland was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

I’m not really sure who first said “the show must go on” but its a sentiment that I found very useful in more ways than one during the moving process. At seventeen it was really horrible having my first day of school all over again – but it turns out Irish teenagers are incredibly interested in Americans and so it definitely wasn’t lonely! One coping mechanism that I’m still thankful for was throwing myself head first into plays and musicals. From a really young age I had been annoying my family and friends with my singing and dancing and when I finally found an outlet for it onstage, I think they were all a little relieved. When I got to Ireland I got involved with musical societies straight away – and that’s how I’ve made some of my best friends here.

In college I lived for the Drama Soc – if I wasn’t onstage I was selling tickets in the rain, moving a set at 3am or dressing up for Rocky Horror Night. I did everything from ABBA in Stars in Their Eyes, to producing “The Full Monty” in the Helix, and I very proudly raised money for charity with “The Vagina Monologues” – dont worry, I’ll spare you the details! The last production I did was around two years ago when I was fortunate enough to be part of the cast of “RENT” in the Olympia. I haven’t done a musical since because I’m not sure anything could top the experience!

Me and Alan aka "Mark...Mark...I'M MARK!"

 

Another experience I had to get used to was WORK EXPERIENCE because I decided to go for a career in media. I first became “Radio Gaga” when my Dad told me all about the days of pirate radio in Ireland. He had run a local station in Wicklow in the 80’s and still had some of the equipment, which I quickly learned how to use. From then on, I was making my own shows on cassette – there was weather, competitions and requests followed by hours upon hours of Backstreet Boys songs. I also “borrowed” my parents video camera, which went everywhere with me in a backpack.

After studying Communications in DCU I got my first taste of the industry with an internship at WPLJ Radio in New York. I worked from 3:30am for free and absolutely loved it! Following a Masters in Broadcasting I became a radio researcher with 4fm and now freelance with Newstalk. Which means I get to ring politicians and personalities at practically any hour of the day to annoy them for an interview! And trust me, I have been hung up on, yelled at and have gotten my fair share of bitchy texts from Louis Walsh. I used to do the traffic reports on 4fm every evening, which was nerve wracking to say the least. My favourite bulletins involved oil spills, broken traffic lights and a traffic reporters’ dream – llamas on the M50. Working in news radio can be tough, particularly when times are so gloomy – but its really rewarding, especially in Ireland where people really value radio.

...I realise how much is wrong with this photo - but lets just go with it!

I suppose here’s where I reach the finale of the performance. Although I don’t live in New York anymore, it’s still a major part of my life and my sister still lives there. When I’m having a really terrible day, I find my happy place among the bustling city streets or at a humid summer BBQ. It helps to remember that if I hadn’t moved back to Ireland, I wouldn’t have had so many amazing theatre related experiences, wouldn’t have met some of my best friends, wouldn’t have met my boyfriend and wouldn’t have gotten to experience Irish radio. Come to think of it, I probably wouldn’t be standing here, completing my first Toastmasters speech.

Thank you very much for coming to see “The Susan Doyle Show”, I hope you have enjoyed the performance. Please use the exit on the right hand side and souvenirs will be available for purchase in the lobby! Goodnight!

And on a completely different note….I was going to post the video for Britney Spears’ “Break the Ice”…but the video is so awful I’ve decided against it. Good song though.