Tuesday, January 17, 2006

After bouncing from place to place over the last few days I can finally say that everything has since calmed down and situated. The tournament in Oregon went well, but, at the same time, managed to leave me with broken and mixed feelings towards debate. I love debate and speech, but I'm beginning to think that I'm either getting burned out or disenchanted with the event as a whole. Originally I thought it was just the mighty speech goddess, Speechalia', reigning destruction upon me (through not being able to pick up new events, losing my excellent debate partner, etc.); but, instead, it's so much more than that. When I got the ballots back at the end of the tournament I was initially shocked by some of the comments on some of them. I wasn't really taking them personally, but since this wasn't the first time I had seen some of these comments that seem more adverse than constructive, I began to wonder if I should continue after this year. I realize there is no way to escape from adverse comments ever in life, but there is a way to escape from egotistical power-tripping former debater I'll-take-my-anger-out-on-you-because-I-miss-being-able-to-rip-cases-apart judges. That way: to quit. I've been mulling it over in my mind since the end of the tournament and I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably switch to IPDA, one-on-one debate, by the end of this year. Next year, perhaps, I will pick up Parli again in renascent action, but I doubt it. In addition to crappy judges, I've also had problems with speech and debate lately because I haven't been able to find new topics for speech events. Which, of course, will lead me to incur the wrath of my debate coach in the near future regardless of any truthful explanations into my irksome search for topics.

Debate aside. The second half of my junior year has started in full swing. So far I think I'm going to enjoy my classes, but again, it's going to be a semester full of reading and writing. I already have three chapters to read and it's only day one. It's going to be fun though. I can't wait to see how this semester unravels, in terms of classes anyway. Anything else, well, come what may. I'm in motion for whatever this ocean of commotion brings my way. After all, what's one more semester when I have roughly three (including this one) or four more to go?

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