Office holiday party · A coworker · Warm · under a minute
Holiday Toast for a Hospital Unit (Under 45 Seconds)
A charge nurse giving a toast at the unit's holiday potluck in the break room between shifts, knowing half the staff was on the floor and the rest had about ten minutes.
Given by Corazon, a charge nurse on the unit. 95 words. The names are made up.
The toast
Quick one, because half of us are on the floor and the rest of us are about to be.
See the big pan of pancit at the end of the counter? Marilou made that at five this morning, before a twelve-hour shift, and she hasn't had a bite, because she's in room fourteen right now. Most of what's on this table is like that. Food made by people who can't stop to eat it.
So raise your coffee, or your juice. To everyone on the floor, and somebody save Marilou a corner of that pan.
Why it works: It names the clock in the first line, so nobody worries about getting back to patients. The pan of pancit says what every nurse in the room already knows, that the people who cook for the potluck are often the ones who miss it, and the toast includes them without stopping the shift.
Make it yours
Borrow the shape, not the lines. Put your own people, your own year and your own detail in each spot, or answer a few questions and get a first draft built from them.