It’s a Wednesday afternoon. The last tournament of the year is over. Things seem to be winding down, drawing to a close, giving us that freedom we always craved while we spent late nights cutting cards—yet, we come back. For some, inexplicable reason, we come back—we read the 3NR, we write our judging philosophies (and how excited we are, about the fact that we can do that now), we fill out surveys about our thoughts on the season, and we generally keep thinking about debate, although everything has now been said and done for the entire year. Why do we come back?
Is it because debate has ultimately shaped who we are, as people? Is it because we are perpetually drawn to the rush of competition, in an oddly addictive sort of sense, like moths to lamps? Or is it just because over the past four years, we’ve come to feel like we are part of a community, and that is a community that we can never truly walk away from?
In a sense, maybe all of these things are true, to some extent. I could never hope to generalize the reasons everyone and anyone debates—but I can maybe at least speak for myself and safely assume that some of this resonates with some of you, too.
So, after thinking about it, here are my “Top Five Reasons We Still Keep Coming Back (and if you haven’t figured it out yet, the Top Five Ways You Know You Are a True Debate Dork)”:
5. We really, really can’t resist making fun of Layne Kirshon and his silly limericks. It’s just too amusing. In fact, this pretty much goes for making fun of things he does, in general.
4. Something in us is hard-wired now to want to do debate work. In some strange sense, we really did enjoy those nights when we had to stay up late, subsisting on caffeine, cutting cards into the early hours of the morning. While it’s true that we’re all enjoying just relaxing, hanging out with our other friends now, and eagerly awaiting graduation…we do sort of miss the hard work. It gave us something we felt like we wanted to fight for.
3. Debaters, in some sense, resemble Rachel Berry from “Glee” (only not quite as psycho…most of the time). We are, at heart, performers. We may not feel like performers when we read at hyperspeed, but we still enjoy the limelight, nonetheless. We love the feeling of giving the 2NR or the 2AR, feeling like we’re right about what we’re saying—it’s kind of a rush, for us. That’s why we enjoy cross-ex—it’s a performance, and we like putting on a show. So, what is a performer without a stage?
2. We really will miss each other. Over the last four years, we’ve made up a community, and it’s one that’s hard for us to forget. The Class of 2010 has been a pretty fantastic one, on the whole. There are many of you to whom it will be difficult to say goodbye.
1. We are, at heart, debaters—in literally everything we do. Whether we continue participating in this activity in college or not, we really are debaters. I’m almost positive I’m not the only one who still likes playing devil’s advocate, just because I can. We like arguing. It wouldn’t matter whether we actually quit debate or not—this would still be true. We can’t turn on the news without thinking about how the story relates to debate (you know you watched all of those CNN stories about healthcare, thinking about whether the politics DA would be viable that weekend). When we start a research project for school, we not only try our hardest to pick topics that relate to debate, but we feel awesome about the fact that we have access to a zillion databases that most of our classmates don’t (yes, I have, on occasion, used Project Muse for AP Lang/Lit). There really isn’t anything we do in the world that doesn’t somehow tie itself back to debate, in our minds. We are, really and truly, debaters—in every sense of the word.
To those of you who aren’t debating in college—it’s been a great four years, it really has. Congratulations on everything you’ve achieved.
To those of you who are…well, it’s not over…we’ll meet again. ☺
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