Florida tournament is about to start and I

Florida tournament is about to start and I

Florida State University, here we come! Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee, what a trip! On the road againblah, blah, blah, blah, blah, on the road again, that damn song always in my head when were going on a long bus ride. I should figure out the words in between, but Im always too lazy. Now that I think about it, I still have two cases to write if I want debate. Mr.

Wakefield would kill me if he knew Im going to a huge state tournament unprepared. Im not worried, Ill do it after the first stopIm tired now anyways. Ill just take a little nap.

I woke up because of all the noisewere at the first stop. Its been four hours?! Im still tired, so, I put my head back again. Once again, I woke up because of the noisewere at the second stop now. I slept through another four hours, I cant believe it, and I didnt get anything done! Im not worried, Ill write my cases after this stop Im hungry anyways. So, I ate a bunch of snacks, listened to my Walkman, and went back to the bus. Im just going to relax right now; my head hurts and my stomach is full. Here we are, Tallahassee, Florida! Its okay, Im not worried, once we eat dinner and settle in our hotel rooms, Ill write my cases.

So, we eat dinner, get our rooms, unpack, and now Im way too tired to write my cases Ill write before the tournament tomorrow. The tournament is about to start and I still dont have any cases readyits okay; I can write it before my rounds. I look over to the side and see someone posting the rounds up. All right, rounds are going to start in fifteen minutes and I dont have my cases ready okay, now it is time to panic! Well, I always said I work better under pressureobviously, a lot of pressure.

I sit down and Im writing as fast as I possibly can. Wow, so many ideasmy hand cant keep up! I can smell the smoke coming from the pencil grinding on my notepad. I can hear myself rooting for myselfgo, go, go, go, Usilia youre awesome! Okay, its time to go to my round, so I plot my butt down next to the door and continue writing.

When my opponent gets there, I tilt my notepad so he doesnt see what Im writing. The judge arrives, so we all go inside and Im still writing away. Im Affirmative, so I go to present my case first. Whew! I just finish writing in time! I walk up to the front of the room feeling relieved and a bit more prepared. As I present, I can hear the adrenaline racing to the top of my head as if I was going to burst. My heart races from all the thoughts and ideas that run in my mind.

All I could think was Wow, I really love this feeling. I walk out of that round thinking damn, he was good and prepared Im screwed! I have to wait for my next round to start, so I start writing my negative case and revise my affirmative. Eventually, I finished both my cases and Im ready to go to my next round. I walk in the room and waiteveryone arrives and now we begin. After that round, I felt a little more confident because my opponent wasnt that good.

I have four more rounds to go; lets do it! I noticed the more rounds I did, the more insecure I got about winning because I wasnt doing that well. Its just one of those days, plus I wasnt prepared and my opponents were very good. Its pretty disappointing. Oh well, no one can win them all!At this point, I was so exhausted my brain actually hurt.

I decided I had no chance, so I changed out of my uncomfortable suit, played my Walkman, found a desk, and put my head down for the rest of the tournament. Five minutes later, someone tapped my shoulder, took of my headphones, and asked, Usilia, what are you doing, why did you change, what if you broke? With my eyes half way open, I replied, Trust me, I didnt make it to the next round, so let me sleep! I put my earphones back on and continued resting. About an hour and a half later, I hear the obnoxious screaming of debaters, I broke, I broke, Im going on to Octos. They must have done really well in the preliminary rounds to break to the last eight rounds. Usually, everyone cheers or congratulates them, but I just smiled to gave them a lazy congratulations; however, in my head, I was thinking, well, at the very least they will be octo-finalists. Then, once again, I put my head back down.

Suddenly, I hear my name being screamed by at least ten people. I take my earphones off and the debaters from my school swarm me like bees after honey. You broke Usilia, you broke! What the hell did you change for, you didnt even know if you made it!! Trust me, I knewnow, leave me alone.Another debater said, What! You broke, go change fast, you only have fifteen minutes to get to your next round.Shut up! Thats not very funny, guys.If you drop this round, Mr.

Wakefield is going to kill you.If you dont stop fucking with me, Ill have Mr. Wakefield kill you, go away!Another debater said, Fine, if you dont believe us, go check for yourself.Fine, I will! So, I get my lazy ass up and drag myself to the postings.

So many lists, so many lists, my jaw dropsOh My God! I broke, holy shit, I only have ten minutes to change and get to my round. I come back to my backpack and clothes and all ten debaters, at the same time, said, We told you so! I flew to the bathroom and changed so fast that I didnt even know if I had the right clothing on. My suit collar was standing up, my shirt was untucked, I only had one shoe on, and I walked out of the bathroom to find my coach standing there. Usilia, whats wrong with you? In shock I replied, Oh, um, I didnt think I was going to break, so I changed. Then I thought in my head, why in hell did I just tell him I wasnt ready?Uh huh, well, I always told you, you should have more confidence in yourself, then you wouldnt have to go through this at every tournament he said as he folded my collar over and fixed it straight.True, very true! Okay, Im ready! I start running to my round to make sure Im not late; otherwise they would disqualify me automatically.

I hear Mr. Wakefield yell, Good Luck, Usilia! As I reached the room door, I smiled and yelled Thank you very sincerely. Then, I walked into my round and all I thought in my head was, well, at the very least, I will be an octo-finalist.

At this point, Im so nervous I could pee in my pants, plus the fact that I drank almost a gallon of water after my last round. The judge and my opponent stare at me while I prepare, so I ask Can I run to the restroom, please I drank too much water. The judge giggled, Sure. I ran to the bathroom like I was running a marathon. Just a quick stop, must keep going. I come out of the bathroom and debater from my school said, What is it with you and the bathroom? I laughed and ran back to my round.

The judge flips a coin, my opponent calls it Im Affirmative! This sucks, I hate affirmative, and its the hardest position to take. Its mission impossible to prove to a judge which happens to be a nun, that juveniles basically children deserve the death penalty or to be treated as an adult. I gulped and went up to the front of the room with my case in my hand and my timer in the other. I took a deep breathe and thought okay, Usilia, you have six minutes to convince this lady the death penalty is goodreadygo! My knees start to knock, my hands start to shiver, and I ask the judge, Ready? I the ask my opponent, Ready? They both nod.

I then began my six-minute affirmative constructive speech. After the beginning quote, I was on a rollThus, I stand affirmatively resolved: Juveniles ought to be treated as adults in the Criminal Justice System. One must realize that in order to affirm todays resolution, one must uphold the highest value of todays round which is that of Justice I was on fire! At this point, I thought in my head, cant nobody hold me down.Words/ Pages : 1,506 / 24