Ah, novices. So young and ignorant to our strange debater ways. They are only just learning the four legs of the cow (or chair, if you're boring like that). They repeat the components of four point refutation like their lives depend on it. They look on in terror as an advanced student explains counter plans. They try to flow speeches word for word. They get candy for reading evidence (seriously? Why don't I get candy?). They debate about super heroes and cats vs dogs.
Meanwhile, we boring advanceds are researching the resolution six months in advance. We recite our 1ACs in our sleep - literally. We've already eaten most of the elephant.
But we were novices before started finishing our evidence ring assignments within the first five minutes. We, too, argued about Barbies and J.I. Joe. We cried at our first week of ering. (Well, that may just be me.) We MPXed Disney Princesses to nuclear war. We ran topicality in the 1NR. (Again, that may just be me. Also, never run topicality in the 1NR.) But by the end of the year, we knew (at least sort of) what the stock issues were for (#tipthecow). We learned how to flow kind of legibly and chances are, we won some rounds. Maybe we didn't break. Maybe we didn't win the whole tournament or get thirty speaker points. But we lived. We learned some lessons, both about debate and about life. We made friends.
From the day we arrive at the tournament, and blinking step into the round. There's more to argue than can ever be run, more rounds than can ever be won. There's far too much to take in yet, more postings than can ever be seen. But the bags rolling far, through the first tournament, keep going on, to the end of the week. IT'S THE CIRCLE OF LIFEEEEEEEE, AND IT MOVES US AAAAAALLLLL-
Wait, that's the Lion King.
Vote affirmative, cause they just can't wait to be advanced. Or something.
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