Thanksgiving

Time for the obligatory Thanksgiving post!

You probably won't read through the whole list, but it was fun to make. So, here we go.

Things I am Thankful for:

• The grace given to me
• Speech and debate
• Tournament season
• People who comment on my blog (you should do that)
• The freedom to listen to Christmas music without judgement
• Negative briefs
• Go Teen Writers
• Purple trophies
• Awesome impromptu topics
• High quality Christian music
• Food
• Cheesecake
• Jamie Grace's songs that describe my life way too well
• Drawing references so I can fool everyone into thinking I can draw well
• Tiny pumpkins
• Rain boots
• Rain
• Snow before Thanksgiving
• Umbrellas
• Hair spray
• Bobby pins when you need them
• Friends who loan you bobby pins when you need them
• Cold weather
• Winter clothes
• Lists about things I'm thankful for
• My parents who read my blog posts (*waves* Hi Mom!) as well as do many amazing things that are amazing.
• Fiction
• Clean love songs
• Friends who encourage me
• Friends who get and laugh at my jokes
• Friends who help me clean at club
• Chicken and Dumplings
• Judges with legible handwriting
• Judges who get my Taylor Swift references
• Extemp questions I know something about
• Writing ability
• Pinterest (it's a gift and a curse)
• Friends who don't judge my adoration of cookie dough
• Wearing my own nametag
• Parli resolutions that aren't weighted
• Bright pink heels
• Smooth terrain for walking in the aforementioned pink heels
• A clean room
• Pre-written parli cases
• Band-aids
• Fingers that don't get hit by pool balls
• Colorful pens
• Not getting last place in impromptu
• Cheesy hallmark movies
• Remembering to wear my retainer
• Long showers
• Sleeping late
• People who read this blog
• People who read my blog and tell me they have done so
• People who watch my speeches
• Chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream
• Skater skirts and leggings
• Debate dance parties
• Pretending to be able to dance
• People who vote affirmative

No really. You should do that.

Reference

Tournament Exhaustion - The Third Year Chronicles #14

It's the third day since the end of the tournament. I still can't wake up at a decent time (for this I have post tournament sleep disorder to blame). I have yet another tournament the first week of December, and I refuse to acknowledge that that is next week (Ahh!). Surely I can't have another tournament so soon?

Actually, I have two tournaments next month. And I had two this month. At least I'll get to listen to Christmas music free of criticism and judgement from certain parties. (Hey, Hallmark has had Christmas stuff in the front window since September.)

So where will that leave me?

Tired. Really tired. I barely have a free week between now and Christmas, and very little time to recover from tournamenting so hard and so long. At least I finally cleaned my room, which had grown in disorder since September and the end of my free time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to the tournaments coming up in the next month, but sleeping until 1:00PM sounds pretty appealing right now. Unfortunately, my brain has got it in its head that I need to wake up 6:30. Every. Day.

But that's cool. I'll just read the first chapters of books I really want on Amazon. If you wanted to know what to get me for Christmas, the answer is books.

Vote affirmative. I'm too exhausted to think of a creative reason why.

(This post is part of a series called The Third Year Chronicles. Click here for TTYC #13)

My Speech - The Third Year Chronicles #13

I didn't think much about one of our senior's absence at club on Thursday. Her nonattendance wouldn't directly affect me. Only it did.

Every week at club, between speech and debate, we have what's called the IF Moment (IF standing for Invictus Fides). It consists of parents/coaches and older students giving a devotional/message thing to the rest of the club. This last week, the aforementioned senior was supposed to give said devotional. However, she got sick and her attendance would've risked spreading the illness.

As extemp dismissed for the IF moment, Mrs. H commented that she didn't have someone for the IF moment. Apparently, in the seconds that followed, I lost all ability to think before I spoke. Now, even if I had thought about it, I probably still would've responded the same way. But the words kind of just came out of my mouth unimpeded.

"I can give my speech."

I had finished memorizing the OO I wrote in August not 24 hours prior to the club meeting. (Yes, it took me three months to memorize a ten minute speech.) When I wrote the speech, I thought that it would be a good speech to give as the IF moment, I just hadn't gathered the courage to ask if I could do it.

So when the opportunity arose, I took it. Then I freaked out because there's like a hundred people in our club and I memorized my speech literally the before. I sat down in the front row as Mrs. Martin made announcements. My parli partner criticized me jokingly for having my script with me for back up.

My hands shook as Mrs. Martin called me up. I stared back at the crowd of IF-ers and I gave my speech. Then I went to debate and everything was normal.

Anyway I'm going to go freak out about the tournament this weekend. You should vote affirmative.

(This post is part of a series called The Third Year Chronicles. Click here for TTYC #12)

People - The Third Year Chronicles #12

I arrived at the tournament facility early. My mom works in ballot push, so I showed up a half hour earlier than everyone else. I sat at a table near the judges' area and pulled out Pride and Prejudice. A few people from Action, the debate club hosting the tournament, were there early to help set up. I set the book down after reading a chapter and start greeting my few friends who were there.

Then people really started showing up. It was, of course to be expected. But, for some reason, I wasn't expecting it. Maybe I was too busy trying to get my really buddy to calm down about LD, or because I was too excited about parli to think about it. But when the tournament came I wasn't expecting the abundance of people. I recognized many of them, and met more.

I can't believe I forgot about my favorite part of tournaments. The hanging out and talking and laughing and the friendship. It's rare to find a group of people who have camaraderie like we have in Stoa, or at least in StoaSouth.

Debate is awesome and speech is great but we tend to forget that one of the best parts of this whole homeschool forensics thing is the friendships. Tournament would be stressful and boring if we focused only on the competition and ignored the fellowship.

Vote affirmative, and don't forget.

(This post is part of a series called The Third Year Chronicles. Click here for TTYC #11)

The First Tournament - The Third Year Chronicles #11

Tomorrow I am leaving for the first tournament of the season. At least, the first tournament for me. There are some states that had tournaments as soon as possible. Why they would do that is beyond me, but other states are crazy (in the best way).

So now a bunch of us are freaking out because omigoshthere'satournamentintwodays. There are briefs to print and cases to tweak and whatever LDers do to do. It's a debate only tournament, so there aren't many speeches to memorize. But that's just an excuse not to memorize my speech that I wrote in August.

Now is the time we should be freaking out, right? I mean, we have 36 hours before the tournament and that is clearly not enough time to do everything we were supposed to do a month ago. And if you don't get all your stuff done you won't win any rounds or get any speaker awards and you certainly won't get a green checkmark. You'll get up to the lectern and spew out gibberish about email privacy or freedom of speech or whatever that parli resolution may be. All that hard work you did at the last minute gone to waste.

It's natural at this point to panic. You're drowning in piles and piles of briefs and flow sheets and suits and check lists and insanity. There's all this work to be done and no time in which to do it.

Stop. For like, two seconds, just stop. That card isn't going to vanish into the void. Your heels will not go missing moments before you pack them. Calm down for one second and listen to me.

You don't have to have everything together. You don't need to have every brief in its exact spot. The tournament will go on regardless of whether or not you remembered to bring eyeshadow and mascara. You may have to use a hotel printer or buy shoes from Wal-Mart. You may have to borrow someone else's tie.

You don't have to have every last thing perfectly lined up. You don't have to give the best speech you've ever given every single round. You don't have to take home trophies or medals or green check marks. You don't have to break to finals or win every round. If those are the reasons why you're competing, then go ahead and freak out and panic and quadruple check every last thing.

It's okay to be nervous. But don't stress yourself out over one tournament. This is the first tournament and you don't have to have it all together. Which is good because I don't think we could.

So calm down. Take a deep breath. Then you can do all the things you need to do and actually survive until the tournament.

Vote affirmative, and pleasedon'tfreakout.

(This post is part of a series called The Third Year Chronicles. Click here for TTYC #10)