open your mouth, let words fall out

I officially spent 15 hours at speech and debate. Wow.

But, I've learned so much. (Sorry I've been listing so much recently! and my capitalization just kind of died on my whim; I don't wanna go back and correct it all.)

a) THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR HARD WORK, if you want to succeed. You can't just not practice your part and expect to magically remember it when the time comes. And when you lose, it's not your competitors; you only have yourself to blame. Really. Suck it up, Northwood, Fullerton works way harder than us. Stop hating/just being blatantly jealous/whiny.

b) PEOPLE HAVE SO MANY SIDES TO THEM... this really nice guy I was talking to before the round made it to finals with his DI about being a psychopathic nine-year-old who kills his mother - ohmygod!!!! His evil laughter sent chills down my spine!!! LITERALLY.

c) YOU HAVE TO TAKE CHANCES - and many times, good things come from them. there was this group of intense looking (most people do in suits) senior guys who kind of intimidated me at first, but I went up and talked to them and they were funny! haha.

d) DEVOTION IS ALL THA TMATTERS. if you are devoted, you will go far. talent is nothing in comparison. (this is kind of like "a"... but whatever.)

e) LOSE YOURSELF IN THE CHARACTER. you're not ACTING your character, you ARE the character. you live and breathe the character. you do not exist during the round - only your character does. (of course... it helps if you don't have to worry about remembering the next line or next sentence... note to self.)

f) I've been thinking about this one for a long, long, long, long time. when I meet people, I can pick up almost instantly this certain depth to some of them. something about them that hints at something profound beneath the surface. & it lures me in like no other. makes me curious. makes me want to get to know them, you know? (I have at least 5 people in mind at the moment!)

g) WE'RE IN THIS FOR THE EXPERIENCE. so while you want to have fun (taboo! flag football omg! ultimate frisbee! lololol), you can't forget the main reason you're here - speech and debate! I can't believe only me and one other person (Rini) wanted to stay and watch finals! Everybody else ended up leaving early. Really, you guys? What did you come for? -_-

h) IRVINIAN IS SYNONYMOUS WITH BRAT. Really. This place really shows me how bitchy and conceited we really are. (By the way, no - racist jokes aren't funny.)

i) TEACHERS CAN BE PERSONABLE. you can play card games with them, or rant about your love life to them (this wasn't me lol), or whatever. Don't come across a lot of these teachers often.

I saw a lot of amaaaaaaazing speeches! (This was a speech competition - I'd be doing debate otherwise.) Ohmygod. For Duo, I remember two of them very clearly. The Incredibles one - ohmygod. Just hilarious. There was also a lot of homosexual ambiguity, haha. Syndrome was gay. And since in duo, you're not allowed to touch your partner except in the intro, another boy-boy partner group (semi-finals) hugged very... intimately? Pelvis-to-pelvis... as Amanda would put it. And then one of the guys did the "snookums" neck thing to the other guy while hugging, with the -innocentface- expression.... memorable, to say the least. I laughed. So hard. My cheeks hurt.

So this specific tournament has actually served the purpose of making me want to enter in LD debate (what I normally do), along with an IE, at normal tournies, now that I'm acquainted with them.

In general, I've learned so much at each one of these type of things I've thrown myself into these past years - Speech and Debate tournaments, MUN conferences, football games, winterguard performances and trips, orchestras - whatever it may be, I never forget.

Thanks for another stressful though great day on Earth. (story of my life.)