From a Bad Debater to a Good Debater

I'm in the debate club in my school.  I just joined this year, and golly, have I improved.  I remember in the beginning, I would've just stood there and stammered, not knowing what to say and how to say it.  But now, my partner and I have become way better.  And somehow, I feel like it was a sudden transformation.

It was the first week of December.  We had been paired up with two of our classmates who were...better acquainted with us.  We had walked into our assigned room, sat down, and began debating.

We didn't do very well.  That's an understatement, even.  Maybe it was because we knew our opponents too well and we couldn't stay formal and distant, but anyhow, we messed up.  I left debate club that day feeling down and depressed.

I went home and thought hard.  What had gone wrong?  What had happened?  I made a list of everything we could've done but didn't.  Then it hit me:  I knew how to improve.  And I was determined to improve.  I swore to myself that I would never do that badly again.

My partner also worked very hard, and I could see that she wanted to become a better debater just as much as I did.

The next week, we did phenomenally well.  We stated our points clearly and effectively, and I can say that if there was a judge in that room evaluating us, we would have won hands down.

Every week after that, we improved some more.  One time, we had a mini-competition, and there was a judge in our room.  We got incredibly good feedback.

Too bad that to this day, we never got to debate against our first-week-of-December opponents again.  They would be so surprised.  We could cream them now.  ;)  (And points wise, we did.  The mini-competition day, the judges gave us way higher marks).

We have debate club every Tuesday.  I bet that if my partner and I keep this up, we'll be able to achieve even higher heights and become true top-notch debaters.

(But considering that we're beginners, we are already pretty darn awesome.  :D)

-Vociferously yours, Vicky.