Brave Enough
At the 2024 Speaker Slam® Grand Slam, the Inspirational Speaking Finals held at CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Leisse Wilcox delivered “Brave Enough”.
Transcript
I was blessed with perfect breasts I don't want to brag or anything but for real perky firm Double D had I been on that Seinfeld episode you might say they were real and they were spectacular so when I find the first lump in my left breast I am blindsided I know in an instant what it takes 3 months two misdiagnoses and one very direct physician to confirm least you have breast cancer and it is aggressive you're going to lose your hair your breasts and possibly your life no nope I can't have cancer I say my ex-husband usand is literally getting married today pretty sure the
new wife has boobs I'm single I'm self-employed I have three little girls I can't have cancer I can't do this but you know what my friend I can do this and for the next several months I focus only on treatment healing and making life as normal as POS possible for my three little girls it takes everything I have but with the support of my family and by the grace of God it works I make it through breast cancer can we just take a moment to celebrate yes yes yes yes there's there's just there's only one teeny tiny little baby hiccup of a problem because yeah
the loss of my hair at a chemotherapy is temporary but the loss of my luscious tits to surgery oh my God am I allowed to say tits on stage okay pH that is very very permanent honestly up to now I've always thought that breast surgery means reconstruction like getting implants and the entire medical community supports this by the way as if a radical myectomy is just the first of many many surgeries required to Franken boob your way back to normal but I'm a bit of a nerd so I do the research and I find that getting breast implants often leads to getting breast implant illness
fun side effects include chronic fatigue memory loss and my personal favorite more cancer it becomes clear that for me my only option is going flat now as a piz single mom pushing 40 who desperately wants to find a new husband this realization sucks I have this horrible inner critic emerged saying girl you couldn't land a man with you had long blonde hair and Double D's if you're bald bruised and bandaged who's going to love you now now I hate like hate feeling that my value as a woman is conditional upon how I look especially trying to role model for my daughters that our beauty comes
from within however I also human and my all-time greatest insecurity is feeling like I'm not enough and I can't just be the only one raise your hands if you've ever felt like you're not enough yes yes okay so you get it here I am confronted with this deep-seated fear and on top of it I am hella Bal with a 26 in scar across my chest where those perfect breasts used to lift I am really really afraid so I decide to be brave I decide to lead with my light and everywhere I go I'm just going to show up exactly as I am and let that
be enough and when I do the craziest thing happens random people are stopping me in the street saying you are so beautiful and the men the men are tipping their hats they're opening doors okay I feel seen I feel magnetic I feel like me you know we tend to think that brave is this one extraordinary moment that shows up in your life loud but what if the bravest thing you can do is incredibly quiet what if in a world that is constantly telling you you are not enough Brave is simply being yourself oh and it turns out that for $49.99 you can get a great
set of tits on Amazon thank you oh I love you one speech can change your life Unleash Your power power embrace the stri Inspire the world let your story flow and speaker slam let your spirit
Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.