Ending the Year: Stories from Seniors

For this article, the seniors on GirlsDebate decided to write about one funny memory we all have from debate. We hope you enjoy :)

Alexandra Mork --- One of my most memorable debate moments was at the Glenbrooks during my sophomore year. After an upsetting loss, I decided to go to Baskin Robbins where I had a brilliant idea: buy an ice cream cake. As it turns out, it is very difficult for a single individual to eat an entire ice cream cake, so I ended up force-feeding myself and my teammates for the rest of the night. Another moment I remember vividly from a debate tournament happened at the Newark Tournament. Although I had to miss three days of school, I was excited to compete. Once my team landed, however, a snowstorm began, so the school cancelled the Round Robin and we spent two days hanging out in our hotel room instead of debating. It was a bummer at the time, but it was also my first and only snow day! 

Jaya Nayar --- When I was in 8th grade, the Jan-Feb topic was gun control. On the negative, my core generic was the politics disad. During my last tournament of the year, round 4, I found out I was debating an aff about banning gun licenses for people who’ve committed hate crimes. I started panicking since I’d never debate the aff before. The Harvard-Westlake 9th graders put their heads together and cut me politics links that got sent about 5 minutes before the round. The only problem was that I thought it was a separate “no fiat" disad. 5 minutes and 30 seconds of my NR was spent explaining why the aff doesn’t get fiat. The other 30 seconds was on a dropped T shell that I only threw in to the NR because I figured I’d spent enough time winning “no fiat.” It was only after the round that I realized the “disad” cards were actually meant to be links for politics.

Jessa Glassman --- One of the funniest memories I have from debate was after finals of St. Marks this past year. Alex Mork and I were the only two HW debaters left, and once we got back to our hotel room, we looked out our window and saw super extreme rain and wind. Being from LA where there is no such thing as weather, this storm on top of the loud tornado siren that started to blare absolutely terrified us. I remember thinking that we were going to die and not knowing what to do! Obviously, we ended up getting home safely but, it’s a funny story I will always remember. 

Joanna Im --- I distinctly remember a round that I had at my first varsity tournament at Cal when I was in eighth grade. I had just learned about the concept of conditionality during my last round, and wanted to test it out – I read a reform CP, and then continued to kick it and read a new 50 states CP during my NR. That was my hard way of learning that condo didn’t mean you can read entirely new arguments in your next speech!