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Saturday, February 26, 2005 Yesterday was the second preliminary round of the Julia Gabriels Interschool Debating Championships. Absolute roller coaster of sentiments, the kind of ride which flings you out of the familiarity of your seat, into the clouds, and sends you hurtling back to earth at breakneck speed. We met for debate at 12.15pm - we got to skip assembly (: My 1st oppo speech hadn't even been written .. Neither had my Reply speech. lol . So I worked like crazy for that few hours ! Of course , we also lasped into conversation (teehee) like how a certain SOMEONE has been chatted up by gays ... hahas . Since the library was closing , we worked in the staffrooom. Mr Anthony came by , and he asked me what the motion was . After like .. 3 seconds of digesting , he started spewing out important points for the debate, like affirmative action and the slight it has on women etc. I think history/social studies teachers are fantastic at the debate. Their proficiency at english coupled with an analytical mind makes them choice debators. Then Ms Shen walked by a sat herself opposite me - Clara and Rebecca were somewhere else . Then Mr A. left and rebecca came back up . I was distraught because my ONLY functional pen had disappeared ! So when Kohster came , ms Shen said chidingly " Did you take Laura's pen? She's very traumatized over it you know. " ahahas !! Turns out he DID , because he was using it to fill in the form for the interschool scrabble competition . Then the four of us just sat there talking ... I've always thought it's pretty cool to discover that underneath teachers lie humans. (: And what a rubbish-esque conversation ! I promise , Kohster and Ms Shen are more wu liao than us okay. Ms Shen : I might not come ! There's so much marking to do. Koh : You are such a PEEG . Laura : You said she's big ?? ( horrified amusement ) Koh : No I said PEEG . As in PIG . It's a scrabble word! Scrabble geek . Sheesh. hahas. After that we just started talking about scrabble . We ordered McDonalds, supposedly mr Koh's treat , but we didn't want to take advantage of him so we just chucked all the odd change we pooled together at him . Rushed to change - it was about 7pm already - and MY WORD ! My skirt was so effing tight ! I looked disgusting , my skirt was all the way up mann ! I mean , ALL THE WAY ! I was dying. Jie min came in and was giggling over my misfortune.. but she helped me make it seem normal by tucking out the uber long shirt (: After that we rushed out to flag a cab. We got there on time... And I was just SO tired ! To make me more awake i started joking around with Frances. which was hilarious. Frances : Water bottles tell a lot about a person . See , I can tell the owner of that one (pointing at mine) is a bimbo. Laura : Well , those who don't HAVE water bottles (Frances) are nobodies. Frances : What ? I have like ten water bottles at home okay. Laura : Wannabe . Anyway .. As we were walking up to our room, we passed by the room where Bhavan Indian International was .. I recognized the speaker so we smiled at each other and waved . They were against Yusof Ishak Sec .. I hope they won . Then we took our seats... I recognized one ex swiss cottage guy - he was a delegate at the Model UN conference . Lucky he'd graduated .. I think he's good. The motion was: THIS HOUSE WOULD FORCE ORGANIZATIONS TO PLACE MORE WOMEN IN SENIOR POSITIONS. And we were the opposition, against Swiss Cottage Secondary School . The first proposition speaker went up , and I was super nervous ! I absolutely abhor being the first opposition speaker because I hate dealing with definitions in any way. I just want to debate ! Anyhow. They defined the motion in such an odd way and placed an entirely different emphasis on the words. The defined force as a neccessity ! So I clarified it by saying, no , it does not fulfil the definition of force , and force should mean a law or legislation passed by the government that makes it mandatory for organizations to place more women in senior positions ! Once I went up , my queasiness faded away and I was actually quite enjoying myself. Then , after I spoke I had to prepare my reply speech while listening to the rest of the house.. That's one bit I enjoy. I hope I get to be reply speaker for ever and ever ! lol . When I went up to speak once again to sum up the debate and the strength of our case , I felt this huge adrenalin surge . I felt SO confident and I think I summed up the main points pretty okay-ly . I didn't really know how my speech was recieved until I saw kohster and Mrs Lee raising their hands above their heads and clapping ... I felt so gratified !! My timing was pretty good too. My first speech was like 5 mins 2 seconds and my reply speech was 3 mins 5 seconds (: Hope I'd scored points on strategy. The proposition had quite bad timing , so I think they won't be marked too high on that . They rushed their way through their substantives and finished early. Their reply speech was only two minutes ! The Proposition speaker made her speech , and she really took advantage of the fact that she was the last speaker mann ! She made utterly stupid conjectures that we couldn't even contest because she's the last one ! She said that we have been arguing that there ISN'T gender inequality , yet the very first thing I said in my First speech was that we AGREE there IS gender equality !! +huffs . Ohweell . After the debate was over , we stood up and went to congratulate Swiss Cottage and doing a good job .. I feel they are pretty good , certainly they've given us more of a challenge than Bhavan or the schools we debated against during the CDC prelims. I could still feel the blood rushing through my veins ! There was a tingly sensation all over . Then they announced the results . The adjudicator was toying with both our emotions ! He said something like : " Well , we've been adjudicating the whole night now, and we feel that this round was very engaging, where both sides of the house tried to clash . Ultimately , we looked at the role of each side of the house and how well each side took to it . We feel the proposition was very consistant with their argument and that it was the job of the opposition to engage the propostition on their grounds, yet they proposed another idea and went on their pre - prepared speeches . The best speaker goes to the third speaker of the proposition . -applause- And the winner of today's debate is THE OPPOSITION . " I was screaming and screaming like there was no tommorrow . I was just so infused with euphoria ! The kind of emotions that make you want to cry for happiness , the kind of unspeakable joy that traps you in that moment , where problems and the rest of the world seem millions of miles away . The only thing that mattered there and then , was that we WON . As we got up to thank the adjudicators and listen to their comments , I felt so happy that I was actually dizzy . There were three adjudicators , and the first one we went to started talking to me " Hey , I thought you were very good stylistically . I thought you should have gotten Best Speaker . Keep it up ! " Or something like that . So I thanked her . Then , the other adjudicator told me he found the way I had began very impressive . I just felt extremely thankful ! Then Mr koh told me he thought I did very well . I could have just died on the spot ! Mrs Lee has once admonished me last year, after the debate against MGS , that if I didn't learn to speak off a script , she would take me out of the debate team . And at the beginning of this year , somehow she and mr Koh both implied that I wasn't able to speak off the top of my head , which left me slightly ired because that is what I certainly can do ! It felt good to show them I was consistant in speaking without a script and knocking down the proposition still ! Like I finally proved myself . Afterwards , when everyone had left and I was leaving , Mrs Lee said "Good job Laura ! You really won the case for us ! " And the fact I didn't get best speaker became secondary , the fact that I haven't won any best speaker awards became significant . It is these comments that I really treasure ... and I hope there will never come a time where I let these people down . When I got home , I msged Kohster , thanking him for training us and spending so much time with us ( Later I found out becca did the same thing - just shows how well mannered we are lol ) and he msged back , saying that he was proud of us and that I have 'shown tremendous improvement'.I told him it was because of his training , but he went all modest on me . lol He told me that he thought beccah and I were great , that we saved our case . I feel so lucky to be in debate . I feel so proud of Becca ! I was just listening to her making her speech and going " Yes ! YeSS !! " hahas . She was tearing the case down , totally (: When the seniors were here , i had this sense of security - as long as there were there , they would somehow salvage our case . And as I was watching her , i felt the exact same thing . Last year , our performance at the CDC debates left much to be desired , and I'm so happy and proud that we've grown into our roles - Becca as third speaker and me as Reply . I'm proud of her , I'm proud of us , I'm proud of the team . I feel so lucky to have been a part of all this , to witness the vast spectrum of emotions , to sample these new experiences and to watch each of us mature and find confidence within ourselves. And not many people have had the fortune to understand first-hand how such competitions are like . Winning is even sweeter when you know you're up against a tough opponent . And it can only go uphill from here . Here's to the Quarter-Finals , then the Semi-Finals , then the Finals , then victory . In only our second year . PS. Oh joy ! I'm up for another competition around April . It's an essay writing and oratorical competition (: Unfortch only one person can be sent , if not becca and I could go together ! but nevermind , she said she's coming to support me hahas (:
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