English Day

This is actually a surprising moment for me because I’m back on my computer and writing, something I don’t do much apparently. Because as you can see from my blog record I only post once a year.. hehe. It’s because I see bunch of Highschooler in the street on the other day with their uniform spray painted. So I thought “why are those kids in the street this late with their uniform spray painted?” you know it was late for highschoolers running around with spray painted shirt even though it wasn’t really late at night, well you got the point. And so I realized The National Examination was just over. (Ahh yes, when you’re in college you wouldn’t think about that much anymore, because you are in this new different level, sorry kids).

Just for your information, it’s apparently a tradition in my country where students would spray paint their uniform after the last day of National Examination. For what reason? I don’t know, maybe because it’s fun to paint spray someone’s shirt or maybe it’s like symbolic thing to finally be able to do what they want and finally not gonna wear the same white shirt everyday.

As I stumble across those kids, it kinda brought me back to my high school days. As bitter as it was, I won’t lie that I had some unforgettable moments. For an example, joining an English Club in my school. So here goes the story.

On the day of my school’s orientation they say that every new student needed to join at least one big extracurricular that they had exhibited. There was Theatre, The Red Cross, English Club, Karate.. and so much more. Those were not really my thing, but I tried to give it a chance. So I joined The English Club. I liked the club because it felt like something else other than only studying in classes and also I got to see my friends from different classes, something refreshing.

What I had in mind about English club was a group of fun, interesting and creative people, looking for foreigners to interview (basically what my elementary school did for their English Club.. that I didn’t attend to) and that was total different in high school. My high school English club was divided into three division, they were debate, speech and art division. I wanted to join arts because I thought that it was uh little tame you know, like playing scrabble, story-telling, being newscaster and so much fun things to do. But I decided not to join them, instead I chose debate division. What made me change my mind was a prep talk from one former student, she shared some of her experiences to the new bloods and I kind of saw her point, so I went for debaters.

In debate class, everything seemed a little serious, everyone was so intimidating and apparently I was a little intimidated. For an example, when I went to my –probably third lesson, a group of kids were already in their position; debating and I tell you it was pretty hectic and loud and serious, and in that moment I thought “how am I gonna survive this?” because I wasn’t that kid who has courage to say whatever they have in mind and deliver, so it was a challenge for me. Each division had their own mentor and mine was scary (at least in my head) I didn’t feel comfortable enough so I missed a lot of classes hehe.

Although I missed a lot of classes, I got the point of debating. I could write it down you know, the structure of debating,  but it’s a little complex and boring so I’m just gonna break it down for ya. So debate has three important parts, they are:

• Definition
• Argument
• Conclusion

As much as I know debating, it has two parliaments, Asian and British parliamentary. My personal favorite was British parliamentary. Each parliament consists different number of team, Asian has two teams (Government and Opposition side) while British has also two sides but they’re split into four teams, the opening and closing team. Different parliament has different teams and roles but they still hold the same three important parts in debating. Enough of the boring thing, let’s jump into the good stuff, yeah?

In my junior year (yes I continued the journey of debating) I applied myself, actually my team, for a debate competition. I was ganged up with one of my junior to win the trophy. Yes the purpose of extracurricular was for winning the trophy and hand it over to the school, contribution. It was actually my second year applying for the competition. I didn’t want to sign up at first because of what happened last year but she got no partner and she was all about it so I signed up.. (yeah it was British parliament, a team consists of two). Everything seemed all good until I got sick on the competition day (really dramatic, you see haha, but that was the truth). It was hard to get it together let alone debating when you’re sick. I was about to cancel it but seeing my partner all excited about it, I decided to go.

We arrived at the site, waiting, prepared and ready for the first prelim (I don’t know why they called it prelim tho). Somehow I got a little better for the first round, I had prepared everything from the definition and arguments, I let my partner did the conclusion. I tried really hard to get it together and I was so happy to know that we won the prelim, not the top scorer but enough to win it I guess. I was happy because our opponents were just so good in debating, they had this real cool method of speech where they didn’t read their arguments from their notes instead it seemed like it flows from their brains, some had a piece of paper and elaborate their arguments, I mean where did they get all these facts and information? It was crazy. On the second round I couldn’t help it, my head hurt so bad and the fever went up again, I couldn’t focus, my arguments were okay but I couldn’t deliver, it was like nausea. What a disappointment, I know. So we lost the game. Remember the How To Get Yourself Together blog? Yes I had mentioned that you gotta believe in yourself and be confident, I kind of like trembling on both, so I wasn’t selling anything, tsk.

The last/3^rd prelim was impromptu, it means we did not know what the motion was and they gave us about 30 minutes to an hour preparation, I can’t remember. It was something about fictional character, Doraemon, because the “Stand By Me” movie was just released and was super popular back then I guess. If I’m not mistaken, the motion was “THBT Doraemon should go back to his real home” or something, the point was what is the best decision: Doraemon stay or leave Nobita. Seeing my partner sad really got the best of me, I really gave my all for the last prelim, didn’t care if we’re gonna win or lose. Miraculously I got better and I could focus on the game again. Although it’s about Doraemon, and everyone loves Doraemon, I refused to really get into it you know at the end of the day it’s only fictional character. Everyone really got into the moment, talking about what Doraemon should have done or not, giving their best arguments but one thing that they forgot that it’s debate, logic is number one priority. And not to mention that they forgot Nobita’s fate. Guess didn’t watch the movie really brought something, yeah?

I was really glad that the competition was over, so I could get some rest. On the next Sunday morning, I got a call at 9 AM telling me that our team could continue the competition and they needed me to be there at 10AM. I hung up and I thought “what team?” and then I was like “Shitt!! I forget that they have this semifinal and grand finale thing on the next day” because I didn’t expect to be at that point at that time. So I hurried to the venue. We’re doing the impromptu again, but I couldn’t really focus because of the rush and the fever, so we lost. It felt like “we fell so hard, we’re comin’ in hot”, no? okay.

The point is I got a lot from debating from the structure of debating to the regular conversation, gaining confident, friends and experiences. It really helped my confident and self-esteem because being a debater is all about it you know. It’s something that doesn’t happen just like that, you gotta earn it. I am so happy that I chose Debate back then; maybe it would have been total different story if I chose Arts. Either way I didn’t regret the choices that I made.

That’s it for today’s blog, I hope you enjoy the story. If you want me to make a blog about Structure of Debating, you can DM me on my social media or simply write down a comment down below, I’d be happy to do so. Until then, cheers up!

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BEST FRIEND

Hey! How’s it going?
 

            I realize that it’s been a year since I posted my writing, it seems like I’m pretty consistent to keep posting once a year. Just kidding, I suck at blogs. But really the thought on writing crossed my mind a little you know, throughout the year but I just can’t—to sit, in front of my laptop and writing. You see, I’ve been a little bit occupied with school stuff and socializing and I have this thing going on, nothing to complain about, I mean FINALLY socializing! I like it really. So yeah, everybody the time of the year has arrived!! Holiday season!! Here I come, I mean you know, writing this.. Okay just let’s get into it, shall we?

According to Wikipedia the definition of best friend is:

Best friend, someone with whom one shares the strongest possible kind of friendship.

And also from Urban Dictionary:

Best Friends are very special people in your life. They are the first people you think about when you make plans. They are the first people you go to when you need someone to talk to. You will phone them up just to talk about nothing, or the most important things in your life. When you’re sad they will try their hardest to cheer you up. They give the best hugs in the world! They are the shoulder to cry on, because you know that they truly care about you. In most cases, they would take a bullet for you, because it would be too painful to watch you get hurt.

And I’m sure you have your own definition of best friend, so do I.

Anyway, I realized that I had no such a person like those criteria. I was not sure who should I call when I was down, I didn’t think I had someone in mind to go tell my bad days or even a good day. Let alone to share the strongest possible kind of friendship.

 As you can tell, my very own definition of best friend was a person who sticks with you through the ups and downs and been there with you for a very long time, that you spend most of the time with them, you grow up with them. It was uh, a little complex, but that sums up the point. As you can tell, I moved around when I was younger, my family wasn’t really settled for a reason, we moved to a city from another city, the culture confused me a bit—my friend would say “Culture Shock”—but I’m OK. And so you see, it doesn’t really fit with my definition of best friend, I was kind of struggling I mean it’s a little difficult to grow up when you’re moving around. I mean I got to see different places and stuff, understand people a bit due to varied culture but yeah guess everything has its own flaw.

So like everybody else in the elementary school, I had a best friend or.. so I thought. We lived in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, went home from school together almost everyday, spent the evening together and she was nice and stuff but it had to come to an end. In the 5^th grade I had to move and I tell you little kid, there was no such thing as social media, so we couldn’t really communicate also we were children, we didn’t really use phone back then #90s. And yeah, I know couple years later Facebook was found. I tried to reach up to her, but it seems like she had already forgotten me, so I was just like go play games on Facebook. Guess distance really has something to it.

Meanwhile, in my new school, really. Different. Circumstances. It felt like I scare people away you know I had different accent and stuff but I made some good friends over the year but no best friend I guess. In junior high school, in my 9^th grade I met four awesome kids, 3 girls and a boy. Everybody in the class already had their own squad, and there was him, jumped from one to another, wasn’t sure where he was standing and so we let him to hang with us a little. I was kidding, we welcome you anytime. And we still keep in touch every once in a while. I enjoyed the company; it felt like I had annoying brother and sisters. If you read this, I love you guys!

Senior high school, I would say this is really a difficult time. Though, I made some good friends. I spent my high school days in a different city. Everything was a little complicated I’m not sure how to put it into words. The good thing is I learned to pick myself up and do stuff by myself I would say learning to love myself a little. That’s a good thing, right?

I remember the time when I didn’t really have anyone to talk to, learned to be stronger, I learned that I didn’t really need a best friend—at least not in a very specific moment. I mean of course I envied those who had a best friend, but I learned not to rush it. A best friend will come when you least expect it. But in the meantime I think you should just learn to love yourself a little you know. It’s perfectly normal to have no best friend, they will come around. You see, I figured it out that what you share into the universe is what you gonna get from it. If you want happiness, share happiness. Sometimes it’s just that simple. Once—if I wasn’t mistaken, a friend of mine said this “sometimes it’s not that others don’t want to be friends with you, it’s just you, that don’t want to open up” good advice I see.

So from over the years, the idea of best friend kinda changes a little for me. I’m still not sure though the real definition of best friend, even though there’s tons of best friend quotes on the internet and books but still. It could be anything as long as you’re comfortable with it. Once I thought best friend didn’t even exist, but something little inside me tells me the contrary.

So I guess that’s it for today’s blog. I really enjoy writing it. Hope it helps you on seeing from other’s perspective. Cheers up!

Ps: I know it’s a little short, really short even, I just had the idea and rushed to my laptop and wrote it. I just want to keep it simple and easy to understand.

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