If you listen to the announcements, hear your friends talking in the hall, or ever walk past Michael’s room during lunch, you encounter speech and debate. But unless you participate in it, speech and debate is separate enough from the rest of school that it is hard to understand and appreciate. That’s where I come in. I’m here to tell you a little bit about speech and debate, and I’ll do it through describing a tournament day.
*beep beep beep*
That’s your alarm clock. That’s right, it’s 5:30. Rise and shine.
You get ready, eat a quick breakfast, and put on your competition clothes. You look in the mirror and shoot finger guns at yourself while whispering “oh yea.” You look good. It’s time to get in the car and stay awake on the way to school.
Once you get to the school, you get on the bus and are greeted by Michael. You set your things above the seats, sit down, and buckle up. Be sure to do that last step, because Michael will slam on the brakes to “ensure your safety.” You should probably try to fall asleep until you get to the tournament school.
Once you reach your destination, you pile out of the bus with the rest of the team and head inside. Your headquarters for the day are in the cafeteria of the school you’re at, so make sure you get a good table. You wait for a bit, and then it’s time for warmups. These kick you fully out of your sleepy stupor and into competition mode. You do tongue twisters, stretches, and even strange dances. Although the ritual is odd, you feel refreshed afterwards.
Now it is time for you to start your first round. You enter the room, look your opponent in the eye, and smile. You are confident. No one is in the room but you, the opponent, and the judges. Too bad, because if there were spectators they would totally be cheering for you after that sick burn in your second speech.
Your day continues, with the second round the same as the first except with a new adversary. After that, a quick lunch break, where you will absolutely positively get pizza. That’s it. Every time. Trust me, it’s always pizza. Ugh. You’ll then move on to your third and fourth rounds, cleaning up the last of the weaklings and establishing your spot at the top.
You then must wait patiently back at HQ with the rest of the team. During this long wait, the people behind the scenes are working their magic to determine the rankings for all of the different events. They don’t need to spend much time on your event, because you were a clear winner. But as for the other events, it takes a while. Well, a long while. Never trust a tournament organizer when they say, “of course we will be outta here by 4:00!” They lied. Tournaments run behind just as surely as they provide pizza.
Finally, the wait is over. You sit through the awards for the other events, clapping once for each competitor from 6th place to 2nd place, and then giving a standing ovation to the winner of the event. You hear your event called, and you go up onto the stage to stand with the others that you so easily defeated. The tournament organizer calls 6th place, then 5th, then 4th, then 3rd. It is only you and another remaining. This one was good, but you were better. The other student is named as 2nd place. You feel a burst of joy, but you can’t let it out quite yet. You hear the words “our champion today is…” and you could leap for joy! You take your blue ribbon and walk triumphantly back to HQ, where the rest of your team gives you high-fives and fist bumps of congratulations.
The awards finish up, but before you can leave, Michael takes a team picture. You hold your ribbon high and beam at the camera. Then, finally, you get back on the bus and head back home.
It’s dark outside already. You look at your phone: 6:30. A long day, but it came with a great victory. You return home at last to get some rest.