First Debate Tournament!!!

The first debate tournament of the debate season was last Saturday (November 19th) and was a practice tourney. Practice tournaments are one of the great blessings bestowed upon debaters and speech-ers alike by NCFCA. They provided a low-tension environment in which you can debut your case or speech and see how it floats. I competed in one speech event (Original Interpretation- a speech category that allows you to write your own story and present it) and Team Policy debate. 

My speech, which was on my dad's childhood, was the only one in the category. Meaning that I was competing against... myself. And guess what?? I WON!!!!!! :P Just kidding. Since I was the only one competing in that event, they didn't rank me, but I did get a number of very helpful comments on my ballots. Presenting my speech has become a lot more fun than it was at the beginning of the season, when I hardly knew my script, because now I know it really well and (unless I have a mind blank) I can work more with my actions and capturing the audience with the presentation itself instead of simply focusing on remember what on earth I was supposed to say. Of course, it still needs a lot of work but it certainly is coming along. 

We did fairly well in debate. My partner and I won our Affirmative round, but ended the tournament by coming to the conclusion that our Negative... needs work :) Out the three rounds that day, we only won our Affirmative, which could be disappointing but "Chin up, and keep moving", right? :)

My sister was able to take some pictures, which you can see on her blog (the link is on the side bar "An Armful of Roses") but since she was judging most of the time, there aren't a whole lot.... But you can see pictures of my debate partner and several others whom I classify as my "debate homies"... I'm kidding. I don't really classify anyone as that, but if I did, that's what the lovely people in those pictures would be called. 

Anyway... there is not a whole lot to ramble on about at the moment, so I hope you all are enjoying your fall/winter (although here, it's almost too warm to warrant either of those titles), and have a wonderful week!

Emma