The StoaSouth Prologue - a Tournament Re-cap

I woke up the morning before the tournament at 5:00AM. Why? Because I had Pre Tournament Sleep Disorder. Why? Because it was right before a tournament, and that's how you end up with such a disorder. I listened to an Adventures in Odyssey before getting up, and then I walked into my bathroom, to this message written in a lovely shade of blue... "THE TOURNAMENT IS TOMORROW! GET TO WORK!" So I did just that. I practiced my two prepared speeches and worked on debate and straightened my hair. That evening we had special debates at my debate coach's house.

I live in Texas. My debate partner lives in Arkansas. How does this make sense? It doesn't. But I love my wonderful TP partner, who I hardly ever see, so when I saw her the day before the tournament, I was more than a little excited. We debated with our case for the first time against some of my best friends. I learned much of tiny fish. And I came up with a great quote for the 1AR/2AC. Let's just say, it has to do with VeggieTales.

And then I went home and ate toquitoes. And then I printed off briefs. SO MANY BRIEFS. My printer had a heart attack, then I started writing this blog post three days early. Then I said I was going to bed. Then I watched two episodes of Parks and Rec. Then I got in bed. And didn't sleep. For a long time. When I finally fell asleep, it seemed only moments before I woke up again. It didn't take me long to realize that it was the day of the tournament.

I struggled through the cold of my bedroom and blinked at the oncoming light of my bathroom. I practiced half of my persuasive then realized that practicing a speech at 5:20AM is not the best of ideas. So I turned on an Adventures in Odyssey tape instead (homeschooling, guys). It was exceptionally cold in my bedroom, and putting on a skirt did not assist the temperature. I tried singing 'Let It Go', from Disney's new movie Frozen, but saying 'the cold never bothered me anyway' doesn't really help.

I gathered my belongings and ate two sausage and biscuit and waited for a very long time before we actually left. When the time came, I hobbled out in my heels, to very un-Texan weather. Freezing. So cold. So so cold. I sat in the freezing car and rode in the freezing car for fifteen minutes from our house to the tournament facility, where I quickly walked inside, demanding that my brother get my debate box out of the suburban.

Warmth. That church was well heated. It was soon to be hot, when all those teenagers in suits would show up. And show up they did. SO MANY PEOPLE. Everywhere. Black suits. I was the hipster in her tan really awesome suit. After our first debate round, it was time the first pattern of speech, which I had all of my events in. I gave my duo with my awesome duo partner, without even realizing that it was a.) the first speech I had given in competition since NITOC and b.) it was the first interp I had ever given in competition ever. (Except juniors, but whatev's.) And my partner didn't even mess up! (*Coughcoughkalebcoughcough*) I got a judge on the verge of tears in my persuasive and my judge seemed to like my impromptu.

Another debate round, an empty speech pattern. Lunch, friends, more debate, and lastly another speech round. I ran to postings with the crowd. 'Hahaha...' I thought 'I bet I'm going to end up going first in all of my events.' I looked at duo, to find that I was actually forth in the room. 'Guess I was wrong.' I looked at persuasive postings, to find that I was indeed first in the room. I looked at impromptu postings to see when I was going. First. It was kind of like the time I told everyone I was going to get hit in the face with a frisbee, then got hit in the neck instead.

After giving my speeches, I walked around with some of my friends and had awkward conversations about awkward conversations. When we finally left, I was ready to get home and eat and relax for awhile. I had a long day ahead of me. I somehow managed to go to sleep without hours of worrying whether or not I would break, like I usually do the night before the last day of the tournament.

When I heard my mother knock on my door, the debate tournament was far from my mind. I was probably thinking about Adventures in Odyssey or something. But the second I heard that knock I flew from my bed. THERE'S A TOURNAMENT TODAY! I threw on my suit (haha! Just kidding, that makes no sense. You can't just throw a suit on), I put on my purple eyeshadow for purple day, I froze my poor little legs off. Mom informed me that I did indeed have to go earlier than the normal competitors who don't have tournament coordinators for moms. I hobbled out in the cold, which was somehow colder than the day before and sat in the freezing car for fifteen minutes.I greeted my friends as we and they arrived until the first round started. I debated, and after I timed Mars Hill.

My two favourite parts of timing MH were 1.) My friend John used mine and his brother's duo in his speech about Wicked, which happens to be my favourite musical that I've never seen, and 2.) Getting to say thirty seconds used. And I got to say it a lot. It was very amusing. 'Thirty seconds used. *restrained giggles.*' It was a great struggle not to get distracted thinking about Wicked, which I hoped someone would talk about because, as previously stated, that's my favourite musical I've never seen. In the process I got Defying Gravity and subsequently For Good stuck in my head (both songs from Wicked).

After debate round five, it was time for speech breaks. I had to use the restroom, but I couldn't leave the room without risking missing something. So I stayed. I hugged my friends who broke in apol, broadcasting, etc., then I sat down for duo breaks. As they went down the names, my hopes diminished for breaking. When the tournament director mispronounced a name and was determined to get it right, I thought that was the end. That's when I heard it. Did I hear it? Yes, I heard it. Did I hear right? Yes. I did. The team name 'Hall/Jones' came out of the tournament director's mouth. And I fell out of my chair. Literally. I fell out of my chair. On to the ground. My friends can attest to this.

After recovering from the duo shock, I walked across the room to awkward side-hug my duo partner (he's a guy. No front hugs for guys). I sat in another chair as the tournament director moved onto the next event. I asked my chair neighbour what event this was, and as soon as said neighbour informed me that it was impromptu breaks, the tournament director (who is the father of two of my best friends) looked down/up from the podium lectern at me and said 'Hadley Jones.' And I was like, 'WHATOMIGOSHTHANKYOUJESUS!' And once breaks were through the first thing did was rush to the bathroom. I prayed with like, twenty people before the round and gave my impromptu speech. Afterwards I kept looking through the window into the duo room.

I had never been in finals in an event that people actually watch. In impromptu finals, I had a bunch of people follow me, and people watched me in persuasive finals. But that was different. There were thirteen people  max in those rooms. And they had come specifically to watch me, mostly because I asked them to. But duo is the event everyone comes to watch. EVERYONE. Well, some people watch HI finals, but half the tournament was in the duo room. We (my partner and I, and everyone who wanted to watch our speech and were not yet in the room) walked in and asked permission to remove our nametags and jackets. And we did our duo.

At some point during the tournament, I played the Bible version of Apples to Apples. I was winning, but then we had to go do a group photo and there were breaks at some point and a debate round and I really have no idea when all this happened. You tend to lose track of time at tournaments. So we had a debate round, played Apples to Apples, and took a group photo at some point in time, not necessarily in that order.

I was going to have a "photo shoot" with my friends, but they kept telling us to go watch debate finals, which I was trying to avoid, and I had to watch it anyway and I was not the happiest of campers. After awhile we started the awards ceremony I got my medal for eighth place duo (I'd like to mention that I now have eighth place medals for every speech event I've competed in. Which is three.) and then went and stood for impromptu.

When the first name they called wasn't mine, I knew that I had just gotten the highest rank I'd ever gotten. The second name called also wasn't mine. The next three names called weren't mine. My name was the sixth name called. Which means I got third. Which means I got a trophy. My first real live trophy! And it was pretty and crystal and said third place on it. And my three friends, of whom I am the shortest, emphatically hugged me. Especially Maria. She hugged me a lot. Like, a whole lot. A ridiculous amount of hugging. And it was awesome because even though she also broke to impromptu finals and was on stage.

After awards everyone got their ballots and either went home or went to their hotel or went to our TP coach's house. And I got the most hilarious comment on a ballot, only it was actually for my duo partner. Most of the ballots were actually legible. And some people were really nice and gave me firsts in persuasive. Then I stayed the night with my debate partner, who lives in Arkansas but was staying at our coach's house. And we watched Mulan. And slept. And woke  up way too early. And I went home and did nothing, as planned. Tournament recovery is more than mildly difficult. I'm still recovering.

One more thing... I got to ask people to vote affirmative for reals, which I hadn't done since April. Which was eight months ago. But I'm still going to ask you to vote affirmative. To save the forage fish. The poor little guys.