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/3rd 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!