So back in the tenth grade a senior of mine pushed me into joining this Central Java High School Debating Competition thing. To cut a long story short, it totally sucked. Probably one of the worst experiences I’ve had in any competition. I got struck down at the very first match and I totally sucked. But amazingly, far from avoiding future debating, I actually got more involved in it. I really don’t know how it happened, but it was probably due to the fact that there weren’t that many other candidates who were willing to be pushed as I was into something like debating. So I gave debating another shot and I gotta tell you, it was well worth the first disastrous experience. I got selected for an all-state competition and I’ve been doing nothing else since.
Fast forward 4 years (it’s been that long?), I’m still tirelessly debating. Varsity debates are a whole lot tougher than your regular high school debate. And I’ve been having a go at it for more than a year without any significant results. Not that I’ve cared much ‘cuz I know to be able to ‘conquer’ the varsity debating world is close to impossible—but we’re getting there!
Only last weekend did I have my most recent competition. It was a regional competition but would follow-up at a national level for the first and second champions. For once in all my varsity debating career (ha! As if it could eva be considered a career!), I got into the finals!!!!!! It wasn’t easy getting into the top four and there were a few bumps along the way, but we managed it.
So there I was, thinking, crap, finale, economy motion, I am sooooo dead. When we got the Opening Government position and got the motion, I was even more like, shit! This sucks! So I was pretty much satisfied by just getting into the finals without any higher hopes. But then the actual debate took place and my confidence just soared up to the skies (without me going all cocky and snobby or anything) ‘cuz apart from one team who I knew from the very beginning would take home the champions trophy, the others were only vaguely significant in the debate. Not only were they only repressively responsive, but the cases they brought along just seemed to be shunted aside. So then I thought, wow, we have a pretty good chance at getting second place at the least.
I wasn’t being one of those idiots who thought that I literally ruled the universe and had every right to rule the competition, but when the results came out and I found out we came in third (3rd!!!!!), I was like, WHAT?! So I’m sitting there, astounded, disbelief running through my head, and I realize I wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Other people thought we deserved to get second place too! And I still can’t understand, even now, how we managed to let second place slip from our fingers when we had it firm in our grasp!
But anyway, that’s just one of the two most pissing off moments throughout my whole debating career (let’s call it that for the sake of this entry). Prior to that competition, I was actually in a place where debating had an anticlimax on me and I was ready to quit altogether (if it hadn’t been for the fact that so many people were relying on me). I just felt that I was getting nowhere. But then, like a breath of fresh air, we finally acted upon our long-hoped-for incentive to invite an outside coach and that really brightened the dim light in our heads. Turns out we were really groping in the dark all this time and that two-day coaching session (although brief) really brought a new light in the way we debated (kudos, Nando!). I really, really, REALLY hope we only improve for the future.
What I’ve been rambling about here pretty much proves how addictive debating can be. Because you can hate it all you want, but you just keep coming back for more. It is so satisfying when you get to prove your superiority over others by proving just how wrong they can be in logic (LOL!). Four years I’ve been doing this and I really don’t know when I’ll ever stop. Seriously. It’s not contagious, but it really is drug-like. People say debaters don’t have a life and that we’re idiots for arguing over something we don’t act upon, but hey, this IS our life. Apart from the normal, ordinary, social life we lead every other day of the year, I mean. So to KiQ, Buna (god, we’ve been together n debating for THIS long???), Permai, Resha, Pipit, Muse, Ary (Bali, anyone?), Satrio, Fathah, Muji (welcome to the crazy world of Undip’s Debating Society!), Mb’ Ayu, Mb’ Rizky, Mas Dhonny, Mas Adri, Mas Ari, Mas Tony, Mb’ Rista (oldies goldies, eh?) and anyone else whose life has been harshly taken away by debating, let’s rock this house and show that debaters are humans too! More human, perhaps, than most people.
LOL.
OK. Peace out!
No comments:
Post a Comment