Say "Shutting"

Isn’t it funny how we can be so gung-ho about something for the first couple of days we do it, but then we become jaded? There are very few things in my life that this does not apply to, one of which is Speech and Debate.

I have been a member of my school’s team since my freshman year and I’m now the president. It’s really strange that after nearly four years, I haven’t become bored with it. This is probably because every season is different.

My freshman year, I was in an event called Impromptu Speaking where I had seven minutes to think up and deliver a speech. I, for lack of better words, sucked at it. Majorly. Sophomore year, I decided to try a different event called Duo Interpretation but it fell through. I went back to impromptu until our little district tournament, where my coach made me do Oratorical Interpretation. I picked a speech and delivered it my allotted three rounds, and to my total surprise, I was an alternate to the state competition. I was obviously pretty good at it, so junior year I stuck with OI. That year, I made it to the state competition. This year, I decided to go back to Duo. My sister was my partner and we had a blast performing David Ives’ The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage. We didn’t make it to states, but we were alternates. Plus, in the Big District competition, we almost made it to semifinals (which we were very happy about).

See? I can go on for hours about it. There have been so many great times at speech. The reason I bring it up is because I will be competing in my very last speech tournament of my high school career this Saturday. I’m going to try to compete in the Student Congress Big Districts. It’s my last stab at going to nationals and I figured, “Well, heck, why not?”

Wish me luck as I try to become knowledgeable about taxes and other congress-y topics before then!