NITOC - The Third Year Chronicles #27

I stand in the entry to the amphitheater and gaze around the massive space. To many, it would be a bizarre sight. Hundreds of teenagers in suits. carrying trophies and uncomfortable looking shoes. To me, though, the view is nothing unusual. Not unusual, but the epitome of bittersweet.

I spent the week with the people in this room. I don't know most of them. Some I met this week. Some I met years ago. Many had walked across the huge stage the front of the room. Many had sat in their seats and cheered for their friends. Medals drape from necks. Ballots are clutched in arms holding drawstring backpacks and snacks bought at the last minute.

My brown high-heel shoes hang from my fingertips. I'm not looking for one specific person. I'm looking at everyone, trying to be with all of them at once. The hours I'd sat through the awards ceremony, the days I spent walking around BJU's campus, and the week I spent with these people is taking its toll. The energy I had throughout the day and week is failing.

Here it is. Here we are. The end.

The end of the awards ceremony. The end of the day. The end of NITOC. The end of the 2014-2015 speech and debate year. No more electronic surveillance law or federal jurisprudence or communities' moral standards in TP and LD rounds. Broadcasting has been rotated out and replaced with monologue. Trade policies with Asian countries, liberal arts, developing countries, OI's continuance. Another year coming.

It all makes me want to cry. A long week has gone by too fast. There are so many people here I won't see for sixth months or more. Some I won't see ever again. Some have impacted me in ways not even I can see. I can only hope that I've impacted them in some way. There are so many people I need to say goodbye to, but no matter how much time I spend in this room, I cannot say enough goodbyes, enough "I love you"s, enough "thank you"s.

I didn't break in my original speech, but I did break in impromptu (to the great excitement of my club). I didn't win any events. I didn't get last place in any events. There's no trophy for me to lug back to my car. That's okay.

I watch friends and strangers mill around the room, saying their own goodbyes and congratulations. I've said a few already myself. I can almost taste the bittersweetness in the air.

"I'll see you next year!"

"I cannot believe the president skipped my name."

"Any ideas for next year?"

"I'm moving in ten days."

"I'm so proud of you!"

"...College in California."

"I love you."

Not much time passes as I stand in the back of the room. I'm so unprepared to say goodbye to my friends, so I'll be cliche and say 'see you later.' An open statement. 'Later' could mean at the ballot party, 'later' could mean next week, 'later' could mean next year. An open promise, though. Even I don't see some of these people ever again, I won't forget this week, or this year of speech and debate.

I leave my spot in the doorway. I make my way through the crowds and have to hug most of my friends at least three times before I'm somewhat satisfied with the beginning of our separation.

NITOC is over. There were a lot of hard spots. Thursday night breaks. Occasionally confusing behavior from my friends. Short nights. Long walks. Heavy boxes. Small hotel room. Three flights of stairs. Leaving my meal tickets at the hotel. Leaving my goldfish at the hotel. Feeling like passing out. Folding two hundred t-shirts. Friends breaking, friends not breaking.

Yes, there were hard spots. But the good spots, the perfect moments, the rejoicing, the small conversations, the frisbee games, the outrounds, the cute suits and kind hearts, getting lost with friends, seeing chipmunks, cheering for my friends and club mates, the sunglasses, the first round, the last round. Every real smile. Every kind word. These things overshadow the rough patches.

When I finally get in the car to go back to the hotel for the ballot party, my mind rolls over the past nine days. The lessons I've learned or relearned. Moments I'll hold onto for years.

I take a deep breath and stare out the window. I won't likely drive down this road again, so I watch the trees blur by in the darkness. I memorize the way the moon looks in South Carolina. I don't cry, but I could. Not necessarily from sadness, or happiness either. But from both.

I thank God for my friends and my family, because without them I wouldn't be anything like the person I am, and I kind of like who I am. I like where I am, right now. This tournament was long and hard and wonderful. Maybe not the best tournament ever, but it's been pretty fantastic. Even if I won't remember every detail, I'll remember what's important. I'll remember the love and pride I feel for my friends, however well they did in competition this year. I'll remember the relationships. I'll remember the people.

Vote affirmative. I'll see you next year.

(This post is part of a series called The Third Year Chronicles. Click here for TTYC #26)

NITOC This Year

My Facebook feed is crowded today.

I hadn't been on in a few days, mostly because my brother was making last minute rewrites on his OO for NITOC so I couldn't get on. But today I checked my Facebook and scrolled through the feed for a few minutes. And I swear, almost every other post was about NITOC or being in California for NITOC. I would be thrilled to read all these updates about arriving in Cali, being at the beach, and driving through the various states between Texas and CA. I would be thrilled but for one thing: I'm not going.

I qualified for nationals. I received my invitations for duo and TP.  But I'm not going, because my partners aren't going. (Kaleb, Emily: I'm not mad or upset with you guys. You're awesome.) I almost qualified in both DI and OO. Like, seriously. I was one/two spots away from getting another check in both events. So because of those spots, I'm not going to California.

Honestly, I've been looking forward to NITOC since last year's NITOC ended. Getting to spend a week with some of my best friends, debating, speaking, going to the beach. I was excited. And all this year, I've been looking forward to it. I was qualified in two events and I was going to California. I was going to spend the whole week with my friends.

But I'm not going. I'll be here, watching Disney movies and Once Upon a Time and eating ice-cream out of my impromptu trophy. (I would eat it out of my DI trophy, but it's a plaque and that would get messy.)

The worst part is feeling like I was just one place away from going. One rank, and I would be there. Truthfully, I'm disappointed. I would rather go to NITOC, and be in California with my friends. But that's what trust is, right? Believing that even when things don't seem right, God is working for good?

This isn't the first time something like this has happened to me. Last June, I got sick at MPACT and had to go home before I could actually do anything. So I should be used to it, right? (Hahaha NO.)

So I'll sit here and eat Nilla Wafers and cry over Flynn Rider. And hope some good will come out of this. (Besides ice-cream and Frozen.)

So don't stop posting your NITOC updates. I want to see how my friends are doing, how nats are going, and how nice the beach is. Just fill me in on all the inside jokes, okay?

Vote affirmative. It'll make me feel better about not going.

That Amazing Moment When You Realize That All That Hard Work Was Worth It

I just discovered something amazing. That something amazing is called glass frogs. Behold:

"He's cuuuuuuuuuuteeeeeeeee!"

It's so cute! Scratch that. It's adorable. So dang adorable. But that's kind of totally beside the point. But it is adorable. I will probably never get over it. Ever. It's soooooooo cute. Anyways.

I'm going to write about something today. I don't know what yet. I could rant about how cute glass frogs are, but I think you get the picture. And if you don't now, you never will. Maybe I'll be a little more serious this time. I did say in the description that I would write about serious stuff sometimes. It's not like I've been outright un-serious. Besides the whole "I AM NOT GAY" thing last post. So I'll be serious now. I'll write about... um... stuff.

So, I never actually told you about the competition part of my week at NITOC. Well, I thought it went okay. My speeches went okay. For two of my impromptu speeches I ranted about how Christians are judgemental. I don't think my judges liked that. And on one of my ballots my judge told me not to use my impromptu hatred as an example, even though she then said that it was good for that topic. And one of the judges told me to use Abraham Lincoln as an example in my persuasive about failure. I had already considered his story and rejected it. Also, it was NITOC. In the last round. And I wouldn't have seen that ballot until after the tournament even if I had broken. Crazy judges. Crazy, crazy judges. Mostly the crazy Californians. They don't know what they're talking about!

Wait, did I say that'd I be serious this time? Oh, yeah. Seriousness. Competition didn't go so well. I didn't break, but I didn't mind too much. Okay, I did mind. I was kind of really upset when I found out I didn't break. And I was kind of sort of crying. But then this odd conversation happened with my friend('s mom) Mrs. Lux:

Mrs. Lux: Sorry you didn't break. *Hugs me.*

Me: It's okay.

Mrs. Lux: No it's not, but that's okay.

What does this mean? How can it not be okay, but still be okay? This is a little thing I like to call a paradox. Actually, it's called an oxymoron. But I'm a Whovian so it's a paradox. But it's not a paradox, or an oxymoron! What she meant that it's okay that I wasn't okay. It was okay to be upset! It was fine that I was disappointed that I didn't break! It's okay to be not okay! I was disappointed. I was upset. I wasn't okay. But after awhile I was. I remembered my speech. Never give up. Learn from your failures. Said failures don't define me. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

So my week went on like a normal tournament, only several days longer. So we were all exhausted. -REALLY exhausted - by the end of the week. At around 12:30AM or so, I went and got my ballots from the car. I was expecting - hoping for, at least - for maybe a 3rd, but I doubted it. But I still wanted it. So I opened my ballots.

5th and below after 5th and below. The highest rank I got at the entire tournament - in both persuasive and impromptu - was a fourth. One fourth. That hadn't happened once at the other six tournaments I went to. I had at least gotten a third in either persuasive or impromptu up to that point. I mean, sometimes I just got 5th and belows in one event, but in the other I would always have at least a third. But not this time. Not at Nationals. Oh, and I looked on speechranks a moment ago. 75 people competed in persuasive. I got 73rd place. 237 people competed in impromptu. 237. I got 237th place. Soul = Crushed.

I held back the tears as my friends tried to figure out this dumb game called 'black magic'. Eventually Mr. Martin told us all to go to bed and I had an excuse to leave. As I was crawling out from the booth at the hotel my backpack knocked over someone's coffee cup and it got all over everywhere, including myself. My knee was covered in hot coffee, I'd gotten the lowest rankings in speech I'd ever gotten, and I had been at a debate tournament for a week. I started crying. There was nothing else I could do. After hitting the elevator button in frustration, I ride up to our room on the third floor and pound on the door due to my lack of a key-card. No answer. I'm frustrated. I'm tired. My knee is wet. My ballots kind of sort of stink. I bang on the door again. Still no answer. I knock one more time then go back downstairs again to see if any of my family is there. Nope. No one there. I hold a scream inside my mouth. Finally my sister walks through the automatic doors and hands me a room key. I go upstairs again and go into our room. No one is there. I throw the key-card across the room and shake my backpack to the ground. As I throw my ballots on the bed I bend down to pick up the card, which has flown behind the huge orange chair in the corner. I quickly change into my pyjamas and get into bed after brushing my teeth. I'm a perfect mess by now. My hair is frizzier than Miss Frizzle's. My face is red and soaking wet from tears. I am not, by any definition, in a good mood. I get in bed and shortly after my mom walks in. She questions me about my ballots and I answer with grunts and nods. She tells me comfortingly that those things don't define me. They don't define how good I am at speech, or how my year went. Then why does it feel like they do? Why does it feel like they're so important? So I silently cried for awhile then I watched T.V. for awhile. And then I fell asleep. And then I woke up. And I felt a little better.

On the way home I was still discouraged. I asked God to show me that all that work I had put into my speech was worth it. Then at youth that night I was talking to my youth pastors wife Amy, who I had given my speech to awhile back. She asked my how nationals went and I told her it was okay. Then she told me about when I had given her my speech. She said that it had really encouraged her at a time when she needed encouragement. I remembered my friend Kate telling my that she had been persuaded by my speech back at the tournament when I had broken to finals, and my most favourite ballot ever that said (and I quote): "I was honestly blown away by how astounding this speech, in both terms of structure and delivery, was."

So obviously someone was persuaded by my speech. Like those two other people who gave me firsts on ballots. And the other people who told me my speech was good. It was still frustrating to get ranked so low at nationals, but sitting here at the laptop desk, looking at the aforementioned ballot of awesomeness, (the 'I was blown away' one) seeing the tiny circle around the word first it makes me realize that what everyone says at the beginning of the year is true: if you even persuade one persona about your topic, you have had a successful year and all that work was worth it.

So even though it's discouraging, and I may cry after bad tournaments. But it's okay, even though it's not okay. It's okay to be upset. It's okay to cry. It's not okay to keep all your emotions inside, so never, ever do that. Write about it in your journal or something, if you're not a crier. Talk to someone about it. But the worst thing you can do is hold it all inside. So don't do that. Ever. Okay? Get the picture? Speaking of pictures, that frog is insanely adorable.

The End. :)

P.S. Vote affirmative or my soul shall be crushed.

That Amazing Moment When Something You Really, Really Wanted to Happen But Didn't Expect to Happen Actually Happens

Before we get into today's debate round I'd like to offer the following  story that happened at NITOC:

It was Wednesday, I think. It was also lunch time. Or dinner time. Either way, we were eating at a table. And by we, I mean my friends. And by my friends I mean Anna Little, her triplet sister Emma, their friend Taylor,  my friend Emily, my friend Austin, and some other people. The following took place:

Anna: We should watch the Doctor Who season finale sometime this week.

Me: YESOMIGOSHWESHOULD.

Anna: YESOFCOURSETHATSWHYISAIDITDUH.

Austin: Unfortunately, we don't have a room past Saturday. I'll have to find someone else to sleep with.

Everyone else: WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?

Austin: I mean bunker down with!

Anna: That's even worse!!!

Austin: I MEAN IN A ROOM WITH ALL BOYS AND NO GIRLS!

Everyone else: . . . . . . . .

Austin: I AM NOT GAY!

...later...

Someone: I can tell what colour personality people are.

Austin: AM I A RAINBOW?

Emily: *Quietly* I thought you said you weren't gay.

Moving on with the point of this post: Part two in the 'That Amazing Moment When' series: When something you really, really wanted to happen but didn't expect to actually happens.

Like I've said, I used to hate impromptu, and was therefore forced against my will to give impromptu speeches. I've told this story before. However, I would like to go into more detail.

Lalala, let's just skip impromptu Friday's because I've told you about that before. So let's go to the first club meeting. Mrs. Martin was telling us about impromptu because she is the impromptu queen.

Mrs. Martin: The key to giving good/five minute impromptu speeches is using examples. For example: One time I was in a debate round. It was my son and his debate partner. I was sitting behind this totally adorable, insanely cute timer. Now this poor timer was bored. I mean, it was a debate round and those things are long. But the Timer didn't want to bother the competitors or the judge by drawing because drawing makes a lot of noise. So the Timer must find some way to amuse herself without doing so. And guess what! There's a lovely, exceptionally large bottle of hand-sanitizer on the table. And so the Timer *makes exaggerated motion to show the Timer pumping the hand-sanitizer* gets some hand-sanitizer on her hands. But of course, it would evaporate so she would have to get more hand-sanitizer to amuse herself. But, as we all know, hand-sanitizer has a little thing called alcohol in it. And alcohol smells bad. And it bothers judges noses. So, during prep time, the judge and her bothered nose grabs the bottle of hand-sanitizer and puts it on the other side of the table. I am trying not to laugh because the Timer is trying not to cry.

People at club listening to this story: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THAT IS THE BEST THING EVERY MRS. MARTIN!

Me: *Trying not to cry because I am so dang embarrassed because that 'timer' was me and that was super embarrassing and I really was trying not to cry but I'm also laughing at the same time because I am trying to laugh at myself in a good way because Mrs. Martin always tells me to do that and if I start crying she'll probably make me even more embarrassed and also that story is pretty funny especially the way she tells it.*

That story really isn't that relevant to this story. But it kind is. But not really. So I knew that weather or not I wanted to, I would be doing impromptu at my first tournament because Mrs. Martin would make me. As in, she would hack my registration and sign me up for impromptu. So I did impromptu. And I gave a speech about how good examples are the best sermons. And I told the hand-sanitizer story and how Mrs. Martin used it to get our attention. So that's why I put that story at the beginning of the post. Yep, that's totally why. And now for any other reasons at all. *coughcoughkalebcoughcough* It was a relatively okay speech, I guess. The next round my topic was *drumroll* "Classic Books - Tom Sawyer, The Red Badge of Courage, Don Quixote." I think that's how that's spelled. I sure couldn't pronounce it. In fact, the judge corrected my pronunciation. So at first I said something. I'm not sure what it was. Then I rambled on and on and on about how the morals of today's books are always boyfriends/girlfriends, and how much better classic books are sooooooooooo much better. I don't actually believe that entirely, but I pretended like I did.

I don't think my judge was convinced, because he ranked me 5th and Below. So did the judge from my first round. So both of my judges obviously were biased. Or crazy. Or uneducated. So. The next tournament. I didn't do any work at all. I didn't do a lick of work on impromptu and barely any on persuasive. And, like I said before, no work doesn't pay  off, except in fifth and below ballots. And that's what I got.

Actually, I got an eighth. An eighth. You see, they circled 5th and below. And then wrote eighth. THERE IS A REASON IT ONLY SAYS '5th and below' ON THE BALLOT! I was just like, 'you're a terrible person!' In a really high, kind of raspy voice. I was not happy with that person. On my other two ballots I got fourths. Which actually isn't that bad. The highest rank I'd ever gotten in impromptu up to that point. But I wasn't discouraged! Okay, yes I was. I was very discouraged. I wasn't really proud of any of my speeches. In fact, I kind of hated all of them. But then at the next tournament something amazing happened!

"I don't know. Something amazing, I guess..."

I gave an impromptu speech I actually liked! It was about a little thing I like to call 'books.' And I love books. So I ranted for five minutes about how amazing books are and it was amazing(ish)! Well, it was the best impromptu speech I'd ever given. So then I kind of actually maybe even liked impromptu.

AND THEN SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENED AGAIN! I got that sparkly green check-mark I mentioned before. I mean, they actually gave out these tangible foam things that were check marks and were covered in glitter and sparkles and it was amazing! And I got one for persuasive too! And that tournament was a lot of fun besides that. I got to see my friends, I got to talk to my friends, I got to hang out with my friends, I got to watch my friends' speeches, blahblahblah friends, friends, friends.

BUT THEN SOMETHING EVEN MORE AMAZING HAPPENED! I broke. I broke I broke I broke I broke I broke I broke I broke I broke I broke! To semi-finals. SEMIS! SEMIS! And then I broke to FINALS! FINALS! And technically, I got last in finals. BUT I BEAT THE OTHER 80 IMPROMPTUERS! So ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha.

And so then I was qualified for NITOC/Nationals in both persuasive and impromptu. And nothing else is really important. And I'll write about it later, because this post is getting long. So the end.

Vote affirmative, and you may get a check mark.

Recap: National Invitational Tournament Of Champions (AKA Nationals)

So I didn't post for a week. Why? I was in Arkansas. Why? Because of NITOC. What the heck is that? Nationals. What for? Speech and debate. But only speech for me. So now I'm going to tell you everything (that I remember) about this past week, because I feel like boring you to death. Jkjk...

Sunday, May 19, 2013
We left. At like, 11:43. And drove. For like, 6:00 hours. This was an incredibly uneventful drive. I basically ate some chips and cheez-itz and listened to Adventures in Odyssey. Blahblahblah we got to the hotel, I saw a couple friends down in the lobby, I hung my suits up in the closet, we ate I think, and then I went to bed or something. Booooorriiiiing.

Monday, May 20, 2013
Parli day! So we take like a billion years to find out where we're supposed to park. At first I don't see anyone I know, but then I see my friend John on a bench with his baby brother. So I restrain myself from running away from the awkwardness of awkwardly wandering around trying to find out what the heck to do. Then my friends the Martins show up. I'm not being very descriptive because I don't want to write a long post about how we found a butterfly that stuck to Hannah Martin's shoulder and hand without moving. So. Moving on.

Six rounds of parli, with me wandering around John Brown University (where NITOC was) without a clue where everything was. Then I saw one of my numerous friends and I was very happy because I hadn't seen here in like two months. So I hung out with her for a long time. Then I hung out with my other friend who I also hadn't seen in two months.. So we helped each other practice our respective speeches. I rode on Mrs. Martin's golf cart, which she was driving around the college. Nothing that interesting happened until later.

Me and my family were going to skip out on announcements because they would probably be boring and useless. So me, my mother, my sister Kylie, and my oldest brother Adam were headed out to the car. Somehow or another, we got separated and I ended up with my youngest but older brother Conner. ((Clarification: Kylie is 19, Adam is 18, and Conner is 16. I turned 14 a month ago.)) So me, Mom and Conner stood outside the student lounge thing, waiting for my Dad and other siblings. As we are going back inside, the tornado sirens sound. Like, really really really loudly. It had been cloudy all day and had started to rain some, then the rain had stopped and now the sirens were going off. I restrain myself from running downstairs in a total panic attack and hiding in the deepest, darkest, safest corner of the building. Oh, and I forgot to mention, there were about 500+ people stuffed in the various locker rooms. When me, Mom and my brother got into the locker room, there were some very intelligent people praying. There were a few metal folding chairs. My mom took the last one that wasn't still folded and I set my amazing new backpack on the ground next to it. Then the room got mysteriously dark. Either someone knocked all the light switches or the power went out because of, oh I don't know, the tornado. My friend Elenya (E-len-yuh) was sitting on the floor and I sat down next to her. Off course, it was boring just sitting there waiting for the lights to come back on so we could go back to the hotel and do nothing. So me and Elenya stood up and wandered around from locker room to locker room, trying to find someone more interesting than those two girls taking selfies during a tornado warning. I don't recognize anyone, but it's hard when all the light is coming from peoples' cellphones and iPods. Eventually we just return to the locker room in which we originally were situated. It's not long until the sirens stop and we are allowed to leave finally. Only here's the thing: my two oldest siblings are still MIA. So me, mom, dad, and Conner and going back and forth looking for those people. There are  spoons and napkins and stuff sprawled all over the floor of the gym, where the student center was. There was supposedly standing water in there, but it was just wet. Finally, we find them and trudge across the soaking wet ground to where my dad had parked the car. My mom takes a picture of the huge tree that had fallen over and we drive to the hotel, which was about five minutes away from JBU.

Only guess what? The power was out. So it was dark. Duh. The hotel lobby provided us with flashlights and these weird heart-shaped push lights that the hotel had for who knows why. So we walked up the stairs (because, duh, the elevator wasn't working) and for some amazing reason the door worked. My mom accidentally leaves our abnormally large camera bag outside of our room. So we got in our room and opened the curtains. Thankfully, it's light enough outside to provide us with a reasonable amount of vision. After a minute of sitting there doing nothing, my mom mentions something about a kid stuck in the elevator. Me, Conner and Kylie totally flip out at this fascinating discovery and run down the hall to find out if this is true. Conner knocks on the elevator doors.
"Boy in the elevator? Are you okay?"
There is no answer. My mom tells us to go downstairs and help this mom get her stuff out of her car since she has a bunch of little kids. The stairway closer to us isn't lit for some odd reason so I turn and start running  the other direction to the other stairway. It was dark. I was running. As fast as I could. Which, come to think, isn't very fast. And as I'm running the ground suddenly becomes non-existent, and it feels like a dream or something. As I am flying through the air I remember the camera bag. Then I fall flat on my face. Seriously. On my face. And my knee, which is scraped. So I'm half laughing, half crying as I push myself from the ground, totally embarrassed. I go back into our room where I discover that my poor glasses have broken. Not in half or anything, but they're super loose now and refuse to stay on my ear when ever I bend over, or jump, or run, or do anything that involves moving. Anyways. A bunch of our friends who were staying at the same hotel came up to our room and we played cars and talked about the kid in the elevator.

And that was the most interesting thing that happened at NITOC. I might possibly potentially write more about this tournament later, like the power flashes and stuff. But I'm too lazy to write it all now. I'm not very good at writing about things that happened recently, and I therefor feel terrible whenever I get the details a little bit wrong. It's much more interesting when it happened much later and I can therefore... embellish the stories with out being a total liar. Also, this is getting long. And I need to write about more important things, like sparkly green check marks.

So vote affirmative, because I'm getting bored.

Impromptu Speeches and Why They're Amazing

Before we begin with today's post I'd like to provide the following:

Just a little something I made for this blog (haha, that's such a stupid word. :P)

Anyways, to the point.
I used to hate impromptu. Like, really, really, really, really, really hate it. (I've mentioned this before.) Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with impromptu, let me explain. Impromptu speaking (in homeschool speech and debate, at least) is where there are a bunch of little slips of paper on the table where the judge(s, if you're luck) sit. Now, on each of those slips of paper there is either a quote or something abstract. (For information, check here.) The competitor picks three of the slips and chooses one, putting the remaining two topics on the table. The Competitor has two minutes to prepare a five minute speech on the chosen topic. Anyways, back to the point of this post. I hated impromptu. Mostly because the first time I was ever forced to give one the topic was, my favourite animal. Now, you may be thing, 'but that's so easy! Anyone can do a speech on their favourite animal.' Only here's the thing. 'My favourite animal' is a terrible topic! Why? Because how in the world am I going to talk for five minutes about pandas?! Don't get me wrong, I love pandas. (I mean, they are my favourite animals.) But what would I say for five minutes? I'd probably just drone on and on about how fat and cute they are, and how they eat bamboo, and maybe how I cut out the pictures from my panda calendar after the year was over and put said pictures all over my bedroom. The worst part was, I had to give said panda speech to all these other kids. Okay, there were only like five but five is enough to make me hate impromptu apparently. So instead of giving a speech about pandas, I complained until they didn't make me do the speech.

Fast forward a few weeks or months or some period of time later. My best friend's mother, Mrs. Martin, is pretty much obsessed with impromptu. (Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but Mrs. Martin is always telling me to do that anyways.) And every Friday at her house our speech club would have a little something called "Impromptu Fridays." I didn't usually go. However, in December, (the day before Christmas Eve, to be exact) I did go. I though it was going to be a party. Nay nay. It was impromptu speeches with a Christmas theme. And I was forced (note the emphasis on forced) to give an impromptu speech. Needless to say, I was not happy about this. Thankfully, it wasn't a full impromptu speech. Fast forward a couple weeks later, I wasn't planning on going to Impromptu Friday ever again. But unfortunately for me, my mother forced me to go to the Martins. (But at least I got to see my friends!) And I was forced to give a speech about (of all the dumb impromptu topics) wishing on birthday candles. It was Impromptu Friday the Thirteenth, you see, and all the topics were superstitions. I was hoping for black cats, because I had this whole speech planned for black cats. But I didn't get black cats, I got birthday candles. And so after telling everyone else to be quiet, I started my prep time. The others failed to stay quiet. So Mrs. Martin told them to shut up, and this time they complied. (Mrs. Martin is very... persuasive.) So after two minutes I still had no speech. So I stood up in front of them as she whispered in my ear what to say. This happened on multiple occasions. (Excluding, of course, the birthday candles and black cats.) I was slowly warming up to impromptu.

I didn't actually compete last year, even though I could've. There's a long story behind that. But when speech and debate started up again in late August last year, I knew there was no escaping competing. So I wrote a persuasive two weeks before the first tournament, and did impromptu. I also did debate, but that's a whole other story. Now, I still hated impromptu, maybe not as much as I had a year prior, but I still hated it. I had gotten better by this time, and managed to stop crying whilst giving the speech. My topics for the first tournament were okay. Well, I really hated the second one but I managed to bumble through it for about three minutes. Fifth and belows on all two of my ballots. (We usually only have one judge in impromptu, and there were only two speech rounds besides finals which I of course didn't not break to.) Make note that this tournament was in November.

Fast forward to January. For the next tournament that was coming up, I was still doing persuasive and impromptu, though I still hated the latter. But not debate. There's another long story behind that. So I did impromptu, aaaaaand it was even worse than from November. Well, my first speech was awful. That's another story. The other two were okayish. The next tournament was in February. Impromptu was okaaaaaaay I guessssss..... But then something incredible happened at the next tournament. I got a check mark! A sparkly green check mark that got green glitter all over my hands and suit and in my hair! I'm not even going to explain what a check mark is, only that it is green and glittery and thrilling and I loved impromptu after that. (Dramatic change for the better, eh?)

But then something even more amazing happened at the next tournament! I broke to semi-finals! Out of 88 people I broke! And only 17 people broke! And I was one of them! That meant I would at least get seventeenth place! But then something amazing happened again! I broke to finals! Eight out of the 17 people broke and I was one of them! So then I was qualified for NITOC! So then I was freaking out because of said qualifications!

Fast forward another month to the next tournament. (Yes, that is an excessive amount of tournaments. Six, in case you were wondering. Seven, including NITOC next week.) So, we went to Oklahoma because that's where this tournament was, and I did impromptu. DUH. I love impromptu now so why wouldn't I do it? So then guess what. I got another sparkly green check mark! I was happy. And then I realized that I have a total of three sparkly green amazing check marks! So I now have something most people don't: a deep love for impromptu. It was like giving a new platform speech every round. (Although most of my speeches are pretty much the same.) It was being able to pray during prep time because you forgot to do so outside of the round. Plus also it was getting sparkly green check marks. And qualifying for nationals my first year. I also qualified in persuasive but, again, that's another story.

So that's why I love impromptu. I also love talking about impromptu whilst giving an impromptu speech. I've actually talked about how much I hated impromptu in impromptu speeches. But that may have just been to my stuffed animals. I actually give impromptu speeches to my Webkinz. It's fun. And they're always listening. It's nice to have someone listen to you.

In conclusion: