Debate

Thursday.

Thursday was my first Debate tournament. I was sooo nervous, until we actually got there. Anyway, so like any other sport we had to dress up. I refuse, refuse to wear a skirt on a cold day if I do not absolutely have to. So I wore dress pants, those are far more comfortable in cold weather.

I thankfully had Debate first period that day and was able to get the 'everything will go great, you all look great' pep talk from Ms. A. And we got to hear Tanner's Oratory. I believe he's the only one who did that from our school. Most of us were doing Congress. Tre and Aspen did Impromptu.

So as the day progressed I was fine, not even thinking much about the tournament. I was mostly thinking how tired I was. anyway, so the day rolls around to 4th period, when I have to leave early in order to actually go to the tournament. This is when the butterflies begin to flutter in my stomach.

The time rolls around, 1:30, deep breaths, I can do this. I pack up and leave. I walk, confidently I hope, down the stairs and to my locker where I have my dinner and coat. I then walk to where everyone is waiting for the bus. 'I can do this' I think to myself. But, well, quite honestly the butterflies are getting worse the closer I am to the doors, and the bus isn't even here yet!

Carissa, Aspen, Tre, Abi and others are there. We start talking and the nerves slowly die a little bit. And then Ms. A comes and we are able to get out 'name tags'( really they have our number on them) I was RB120. And then as soon as we got our numbers we were able to go out to the bus.

The Bus ride was really quite uneventful, but I was able to get some Chemistry done and talk to the others. and then we were there, we got off and went into the school. Then we had to wait around forever it seemed like. Sessions didn't even start until 3:30! and we were there about 1:50 at least. Ashley and Aspen and I talked. and well,I wasn't able to get any speeches written.

Finally postings were, well, posted. And I was in "House of Vader" (all the houses had Star Wars themes) Ashley and I went in search of B1 and B3. And on the way we found another B1-er who was also from Davis, well technically Kaysville. her name was Ally. and we became friends rather quickly.

Much to my surprise Dallen D. from my Sixth grade class was in my house, he went to a different Junior High and I've only seen him in passing a couple of times in the last 3 years. I half wonder if he even recognizes me. Anyway, so I recognized a few people from other schools and there were quite a few from Davis.

Our Judge for the first round was Okay, but she wasn't the best, and she didn't quite know what she was doing so a lot of things that should have been done didn't get done. remember we're all novices in this house so we don't know what to do either. We were let out a little bit earlier than we should have been from the first session and that caused quite a bit of panic because we had to get everyone back before we were not eligible for awards.

finally we finished our first session. and Ally and I headed up to just hang around and talk. I learned quite a bit about her family and we were able to talk to Tre, Carissa, Ashley and others, and Ms. A. Then were back for the second session.

The second session was quite a bit better, we had judges who knew what we were supposed to do. The only speech I gave was not very good, one point(we're supposed to have 2 at least) but I was so annoyed that nobody was getting the point, they kept misinterpreting it. and it was bugging me. so I gave a speech.

Then we were all the way done. we had to wait around for another hour for them to finish tallying scores, and then we finally had awards.

Of course, Tanner got first place for his oratory. 2 girls from my house got awards, Megan and Ally. They did really well. We finally were able to go home! at about 9:20 we boarded the bus and headed home. Carissa and I sat together and we learned quite a bit about each other. Like I know her sister, She's a junior and in my seminary class, but they look nothing alike. Carissa and I are both in the same French class and we talked about BYU's French Language Fair and other related topics.

We finally got back to the school and mom drove up right as I was walking toward that parking lot. I was finally able to go home! and not go to bed, but do more homework.

All in all I call my first Debate tournament a success, not because I lost, but because I know now what to expect!