What Have I Done?

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Ok, get this you guys... I'm in debate! Debate usually requires a student with good verbal skills, and quick thinking, and speak pretty loud, and well I have none of that unfortunately. But well, I'm good at it in a funny way. I just came from a Novice competition today and I made it to the semis. Well, I never debated before and Novice, I'm assuming is for beginners (like my self) to try out in competition with other beginners, and like i said before, I made it to the semis. :)
Truthfully, I didn't think i was going to stay in the class but after tonight, I promised my self I would do my best in this class and hopefully win a trophy (I like trophies) :D

If any one cares, I didn't have a panic attack when i went up and read my argument, in fact i went up with high-expectations of my self I just kept on thinking to my self "Ok, don't freak. I'm better than all these losers, my speech is nice and long, I can do it!" and i just kept repeating and repeating this, and it worked out for me, that and the fact that I'm so blind that I didn't wear my glasses so i couldn't exactly see the people staring which was a big plus for me. I'm in congress speech and although I'm putting high expectations to my self but, my goal is to apply for state!

I wonder if anyone else in this site is in debate too?

I did policy debate one year in high school and 3 years in college. I think my ability to think coldly and logically about issues helped a lot. I'm not sure what Congress speech--is that like Parliamentary? We didn't have that when I was in school.

Congrats on your accomplishment! I think debate is really helpful for lots of people--teaches you how to analyze an argument so you can read things and be able to see where the logical flaws are. So you're not as easily swayed by people. It may be difficult for you at first (although sounds like you dealt with it well! ) but it will be really beneficial for you later on. College usually involves loads of presentations (I have one in almost every class) and being able to speak publicly is a huge advantage.

Congratulations on your achievement!

In high school I had won a contest writing an essay and was treated to a banquet at the local elk's meeting. After being given the certificate the men started yelling, Speech, speech! I hadn't realized I was supposed to give a speech! I shook my head and sat down red-faced to much laughter. I determined that I would learn how to give an unexpected speech. I joined debate.

Because we had so few students, my partner and I were on the A team even though we had never done debate before. We lost every match. I didn't care because I got to see how good teams did debate and each meet I learned something new to become better. The second year we started winning every once in a while. During one match while the other team was stomping us, I was grinning because I was so enjoying how well they put their points. But one guy who was doing great started stammering and then he dropped his cards and then he lost his train of thought. I wondered what happened to him. The second guy fell apart too. So we won the match even though they had started out so much better than us. After the match, the guys ran up to us screaming, "What did we do wrong?" We had no idea what they meant. "You were grinning! You knew we had done something wrong! What was it?" They could not believe we were smiling because we had been enjoying their mastery. So.... my partner and I grinned through every match and team after team crumbled before us. The last meet of the year we won a great big trophy. Debate was one of the most useful things I did in high school.

I started it, but I found another academic club that met on the same day and at the same time that I found more interesting, so I dropped it. The people seemed disappointed. I might do it another year.

I would, if the faculty didn't force you to edit parts of your argument they didn't like.
They wouldn't let you do anything pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-drug, anarchistic, anything "too liberal", anything against the state, say that education system is a farce due to standardized testing, or even say that you are being censored by them.