10 Things I Love About Speech and Debate

There are a lot things great things about speech and debate, so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourites. Now, while these aren't the only things I love, I don't want to make this even longer. Plus, I don't want to have to find a million pictures for all the things I love. Seriously. It took me forever to find all those pictures. You'd better appreciate them. So much so, that you vote affirmative. (Wow, I think that was the first time I put that at the beginning.)

10. Winning Lots of Trophies

So I'm kind of joking about this one, seeing as how I've never actually won a trophie. But I bet it's really exciting, and I would probably love it. I guess that's why it's only number 10. Medals are cool too. I have a couple of those. At some tournaments they award real, tangible green check-marks. I find those rather humorous, actually. They get glitter all over my hands. And my hair.

9. Not Having a Speech this Pattern

I made a tournament. It's called KITOC.

Seriously. I love it when I think I have to rush to a speech because my debate round ended late, then finding out that I have no events that pattern, and thus can sit around and watch other people's speeches. That, or play cards and Apples to Apples Bible Addition. But of course, there is it's evil twin: finding out you actually do have all of your speeches this pattern, and then you have to abandon your intense game of spoons and go give an impromptu speech or something.

8. Having a Speech Go Exactly Ten Minutes

This has only happened to me once. When the timer told me 'Ten minutes exactly.' I was like, "really? That's great!" I swear I almost high-fived the kid. It was even better because it was in semi-finals.  And even better because I was so used to my speech being either 8:10, or 9:36. The same goes for when my impromptu is exactly five minutes, or my constructives exactly eight minutes. Or my- okay, you get the idea.

7. Timing Interps

This is Chandler Lasch. She's really
awesome and you should read her blog.

Specifically duo and HI. Those things are hard to time. Not because of hand signals, because there aren't any. All you have to do is start when they start and stop when they stop. Easy. Timing duo/HI is hard because EVERYONE wants to time interps. Everyone. Everyone wants to time HIs and duos because they'll probably be funny. And everyone loves a funny speech. But some of my favourite interps are dramatic. Some people just don't appreciate a good DI. Poor DI. So under-rated. You should all do a DI. DI's are cool. (BTW, have you noticed that if you pronounce DI like an actual word it sounds like 'die?' Coincidence? I think not.

Me in a suit in
impromptu
finals.

6. Wearing Suits

Some people don't like having to wear suits at tournaments. I love it. Up until NITOC last year (it feels so weird calling it last year) I had a total of three suits. Two of those suits were hand-me-downs from my sister. But we went shopping right before NITOC and got like a million more suits. So I have to decide what suits to wear at tournaments. This will be difficult. Whenever I practice my speech in my room to my stuffed animals, I put on my heels and suit jacket. It just feels more real that way. At NITOC, when I didn't break, I still wore my suit jackets and special debate shirts because I had so many and didn't want them to go to waste.

5. The Awards Ceremony

I can dream!

Back in the (NCFCA) days, the awards ceremony would drag on until midnight. Seriously. We left a tournament at 12:00am one time because the tournament went so late. But no longer is that the case! Awards ceremonies go much quicker no-a-days. And they're a lot of fun. Especially when my friends do awesome things.

4. "Watching" TP Finals

I never used to watch TP finals because they wouldn't let me time it. That was annoying. Then one time my brother broke to TP finals. And that was awesome. But that's a whole other story.  Whenever I watch TP finals, I don't usually do it for the debate. I'm sick of debate by the time the tournament reaches this point. I actually only watch TP finals if a.) my friends are watching. b.) My friends/family are in finals. But since my friends usually watch, I usually watch. And by watch, I mean flow the 1AC then start drawing or passing notes with my friends. One time I took selfies with some friends during prep time. And I made really cool name-tag designs one time. And then all my friends wanted one too. It was a lot of fun, and I don't even remember who was debating.

Yes, I realize this is duo postings.
But duo is kind of like TP, because
there's a team.

3. Ballot Parties

The tournament has ended. Everyone is exhausted and wants to go to bed. So we stay up until 1:00 'talking about ballots.' Truth be told, I'm pretty sure we only spend the first half hour complaning about judges talking about ballots. After that we tell our horror stories from the tournament, play 'baby if you love me' and basically just talk until the hotel staff tells us to shut up. In-N-Out ballot parties are probably my favourite. So yeah. Ballot parties are super awesome. Especially when I discover...

HEY LOOK AT THE TREES!

2. First Place Ballots

Do you remember the first time you got a first place on a ballot? I do. It was at that tournament I broke to finals at. Whenever I broke, I started crying. (Not because I was sad. I couldn't have been happier.) At the awards ceremony, when I got my medal, I started crying.  Whenever I opened up my ballots, half expecting a first, half trying not to hope so I wouldn't be disappointed. Then I found the best ballot in the history of ballots  That judge is the best ever. Not only did he give me my first first place, he voted for me against Rambo/Rambo the sequel. The first round I ever won.

The best ballot ever. Seriously. It
doesn't get better than this ballot.

1. Praying Before Rounds

This is my favourite thing to do before a round starts. I feel nervous, and everyone around me feels nervous. So what do we do? We pray. This is Christian homeschool speech and debate. And sometimes we pray together. That is the best. It helps us remember the reason we do speech and debate: for the glory of God. It's so encouraging when one of my friends asks me to pray before rounds. Especially when we're in the same room together. Like when I broke to impromptu finals, a good friend of mine was also in finals. And we prayed together even though we were competing directly against each other. It was awesome.

Vote affirmative, because there are a lot of awesome things about speech and debate.

(P.S. If you liked this post, you might like SCHSADKL, by Chandler Lasch. It's awesome.)