Tournament Withdraw: The Struggle is Real

It has been a month since the last tournament I went to. This is, obviously, far too long. Our club meetings have been very small these past few weeks. (Now we know what other clubs feel like when they meet. O.o) Some are busily preparing for NITOC. Some are busily preparing for next year. Some are moping in their rooms because they didn't qualify. Some are scrolling Facebook mindlessly waiting for speech and debate camps.

I'm sitting here, with a lack of blog post material because I haven't been to a tournament in four weeks. I have a tournament next week, but it's really small and only two days, and I'm not freaking out about it because I have both of my remained prepared speeches memorized waaaaay better than the back of my hand (who has the back of their hand memorized, anyway?). (Don't worry mom/dad. I'll practice like a good child.) Sometimes, I like to close my eyes and think of what it'll be like when tournaments do come. (Don't worry, I'm not about to break into an In Summer parody. Maybe later.)

So I write in my book and I read books and I watch Once Upon a Time and I watch TLC wedding shows and then I stay up late (not intentionally) thinking about the deeper things in life, and asking the important questions, such as (but not limited to) 'what is the meaning of life?' 'What do people have against impromptu?' 'Why did I put on two different colored socks this morning?' 'How OUAT find so many attractive men to be in the show?' 'When will season three of OUAT be on Netflix?'

And I sit around watching movies with mom. And sometimes I wish I were at a tournament. Hanging out with my amazing friends, giving speeches, talking about fish and oil and parametrics, eating gross tournament food, writing speech and debate parodies with my friends, hoping that people will come and watch my duo.

But it's the hanging out with friends that I miss the most. I mean, there's club, but now hardly anyone comes, and there's Frisbee and parties and workshops. But it's not the same. It's not spending 2-4 days with the bestest people ever. It's not eating meals together. It's not watching your friend's rounds. It's not the the excitement when a friend breaks. It's not the sadness when the tournament ends. It's not the exhaustion during the ballot party.

There's something special about tournaments. We're all at the same place for a number of days and we can't seem to get away from each other and there's something about that that I miss. Sure, tournaments are stressful and nerve-wracking, and sometimes heartbreaking. And, not gonna lie, I miss it all.

But I'll survive. I'll stalk people on Facebook and G+. I'll see people at club. I'll see people outside of club. I may not see some people until speech and debate camp. I'll write blogposts about other things (okay, probably not that). I'll read, I'll write. And one day, one magical day (next week) I'll go to a tournament and tournament just as hard ever. And I'll thank God for all the days in between, because those are special too, just in a different way. After all, if days were special in the same way, they would be special.

And while you wait for the next tournament, you can go ahead and vote affirmative, because you know you're experiencing tournament withdraw too (or you will be soon. Why must summer come so soon?).