Assignment 21- Jasir Rahman- Yeah... It's About Debate

I am struggling to find essay topics that aren't cliches. That is a problem. Don't worry, rest assured when college applications and crunch time rolls around, I will have a better story of challenge.

My freshman year debate career was abysmal. I don't know what happened to be honest. All I remember was frustration. My first debate round ever, the other team was absolutely absurd. The topic regarded anti-missile defense systems, and our opponents were running an argument about how it causes cancer. I knew it was absurd. But once I got up for my summary speech, I froze. I stuttered my way through a most likely incoherent speech for the judge in which I failed to use normal logic. All the while their beady-eyed coach vehemently nodded and mouthed points to our opponents. I was determined to show that coach what for, but alas I wasn't there yet. We went 0-3, and the losses kept coming. The only successful run was a 2nd place finish out of 4 teams in our division. I couldn't even be proud.

Then, instead of the novice division that I had competed in all season, I competed in Varsity with one of our experienced Juniors (he would go on to win State the next season). After my nerves of going against upperclassmen subsided I went on to gain confidence. Every round I competed in was better than the last. Ultimately, we didn't break onto the playoff rounds, but I had learned so much. Unfortunately, my enlightenment came too late. My poor performance relegated me as an alternate for our State Debate run. I would have to wait until next year to prove myself. I was determined to not have a repeat of the previous year, so that summer I studied debate from online resources, watching high-level rounds and understanding the technical aspects. Then, a few months later my time came to prove myself.

Our first tournament of the year was a national tournament hosted at UK. Schools from all over the country had come to debate, almost all with much larger and more sophisticated teams, but I wanted to set the tone for the year. The maintenance of my newfound confidence was important but nowhere near as important as my methodical study of the nuances of public forum, as we were going against teams from more technical circuits. In prelims, we went 4-2 and broke to out rounds. We ultimately made it to semifinals of a national tournament. However, I wasn't fully convinced that I had come that far. We had months to prepare for this topic, and it was in the JV division, not even Varsity. At our next tournament in semifinals, we went against a team from the same school of my first ever round. The coach was there. Without hesitation, I asked him to be somewhere the judge could see him, as to prevent cheating. His smirk that crept up his mouth when he saw that timid kid from a year ago curled down into a scowl. The round commenced, again an absurd argument was presented from our opponents, but this time instead of freezing without response, I maintained composure and proceeded to pick apart their baseless claims one by one until the judge had no choice but to vote against our opponents. I had finally done it.

Since then I've done pretty well for myself in Varsity PF, all because of a choice. Instead of giving up and saying this might not be for me, I stuck with debate. I'm not saying never give up on something, however. Even when I lost round after round, I enjoyed debate. However, nothing great comes without hard work and perseverance. If you love something and want to excel at it, persevere and put in the work, and you'll see results.