Be Sincerely Brief

“You can tell when someone is passionate and when they are just reciting something,” said Rose Lane, a member of the Warner Center Toastmasters. “You should know the toast by heart--that shows it comes from the heart.”

She offered to critique some toasts I’d written. Write your toast out beforehand, Lane said, then memorize it--and say the toast like you mean it.

I tried to think of the people who meant the most to me and decided to write three toasts: one to my family, one to my significant other and one to my friends.

In some ways, writing a toast is easy because it is short, and you must get to the point quickly. A toast also can be difficult for that same reason, as you must come up with something poignant in a brief format. I tried to express my feelings as specifically as possible without sounding too corny.

Because I live far from my family, I like that toast best:

To my dearest family, you who have embraced me throughout the years in times of both shadow and light and especially during distance. I wish the best to all of you in 1994. I hope in this next year to get the chance to see you more often in person and even when I’m not with you in the flesh, I am still with you in mind, spirit and soul.

And for my boyfriend:

To my significant other: Our time together began in 1993 and made this year one of my very best. You have been my strength, sanity and hope. May we continue to care for each other unconditionally and make each year beyond this one a bigger and brighter success together.

In a toast to my friends, I tried to emphasize the meaning of true friendship:

To my true friends: You have remained devoted unconditionally, you who have heard and supported me through laughter and tears. I wish for you in 1994: good health, success and peace.

Lane listened to my toasts, extracted words she felt were cumbersome, added words she thought made a stronger emphasis and changed some words as well.

Although Lane approved of the sentiment in my toasts, I felt they were still less like me and more like a Hallmark card--a little too mushy. But I was new to toasting and would work on adding more of myself to them. Since we seldom toast in my family, it was unlikely I would propose them this holiday season. But I am prepared to use the other two for New Year’s.

If you want to make a toast, you don’t have to be original, either. Some good, yet simple toasts that might work for New Year’s come from “10,000 Jokes, Toasts and Stories,” edited by Lewis and Faye Copeland. These two are short and sweet:

Here is to friendship: One soul in two bodies.

Or:

Here’s a toast to the future, A toast to the past, And a toast to our friends, far and near. May the future be pleasant; The past a bright dream; May our friends remain faithful and dear.