For the Speech/Debate Nerds among us...

I know some of you are out there.

I just discovered THIS blog and if you are a speech and debate person it is absolutely imperative that you read it. It had Raymond and I in stitches for a good half hour.

Chandler, please publish a book.

Speech & Debate: my 3 year summary.

This year has concluded my final year of speech & debate. While I wasn't able to go to nationals this year, my brother, as you've probably heard, took FIRST place at Nationals. :)

You'd think that as a speaker/debater, I'd be able to come up with the words for this post -- but this post has been in-draft for weeks while I tried to think of how I wanted to put things.

Out of all the things I've learned in debate, one of the biggest things I've taken away is that it's okay to be speechless.

Yes.

Good speakers are good listeners, just like good writers are good readers, and good artists are good observers.

But even more than that, becoming a good speaker is not knowing how you want to communicate, but what you want to communicate. And more often than not, it takes a couple speechless, red-in-the-face moments in front of a crowd of people for me to realize what my message really is, and why I'm doing this in the first place. We have to be vulnerable before we can be strong.

It's the grueling pain of experience that makes your message powerful and passionate.

You see...you really have almost no control over your own coherency during a speech & debate tournament. At least, I don't. I don't know about other people. But sometimes I have great rounds and sometimes I have terrible rounds and while it sometimes may or may not have a relation to the amount of caffeine I've ingested, there really is no way to have complete control over the outcome.

Sometimes, I draw a totally ridiculous topic in impromptu, sit there dumbly for my entire prep time, and then get up and give a brilliant speech. Sometimes I draw a great quote but stumble over every other word. Sometimes I've got an ingeniously crafted response to my opponent's argument, and I still lose. Other times I win even though I made clear contradictions in my cases.

I've come to realize that you can't decide what the outcome is going to be. You can't choose how things will turn out and no matter how good you are, it doesn't mean you'll always do well.

Sure, there's a lot of style, talent, and personal love for it that goes into public speaking, but those are not the things that make you a good communicator.

What makes you a good speaker is your passion for your message that you are sharing.

Communicating is not about getting other people to do things, or trying to make them understand you, and it's certainly not about winning a medal. It is not about proving to others you are more right than someone else,

Communicating is about sharing what you love with those around you. It's about taking that passion that you have and allowing it to run wildly into the lives of others so that they can experience the same delight that you have.

Communicating is about letting your message be your energy, when you have none. About letting what you have to say be the thing that drives you even when you think you can't keep going. And you don't need things to be just so in order to share it, either.

I had a persuasive round this year that was absolutely horrible. I forgot a line said something dumb like "oops I'm sorry, I lost my place...>AWKWARD PAUSE< and stumbled over my words. It was semi-finals.

But what I've learned is that God doesn't need me to be up to my standards of perfection in order to share His message.

In fact he even says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weaknesses.

I'm not really sure how God's perfect strength could be "made perfect" through the weakness of a fallen, despicable human being -- but what I think this verse means is that this great, beautiful, mighty God can somehow work wonders through our shameful, awful weaknesses.

It's that moment you have...in a speech round, as you are reciting the speech you've practiced over and over again when suddenly, nothing in that moment is more important than your judge understanding and taking to heart what you have to say.

Through speech & debate I have learned the importance of hard work, the value of a small amount of time, and the precious closeness of some of my dearest friends. I have laughed, cried, sweated, and yes, literally bled. I have over 15 trophies and medals, at least a foot's height of judge's ballots, and am skilled in the art of packing for a 3-day tournament in under 2 hours.

In 20 years though, my guess is those trophies will be in a box somewhere. They won't last, but what will are the messages and truths I have learned.

There are many chapters of my life which I am not ready to close. Many which I have clung to desperately as if my identity depended on them, things I could not let go for fear that without it I might not know who I was.

But this time I okay with the ending, because I know that the experiences I have gained will go with me from years to come. I have taken something powerful from this.

It may have been my last year of speech, but my life as a communicator does not end there -- the end of this chapter is just the beginning of a new one. I'm off, I'm running, arms open to the experiences and adventures ahead.

And so it begins.

Last weekend marked the first official tournament of the speech and debate season.

Not only that, it was the first official tournament that anybody in our league has had.

Like, nobody else in the country had a tournament yet.

Isn't that special?

There were no speech events - just debate. So that was 2 very long days of debate -- with my psychotic, half-insane debate club. :D

We spent 5 hours in the car (yes, our entire club.) (Granted, there's only 4 in our club) driving down to Eugene, Oregon - listening to Veggie Tales, Revive, Irish Pub music, and creating debate examples based off of things we saw outside the window.

Because we all had school-ish such things going on that day, we didn't leave till 4:30pm. This means that with a 5 hour car ride, we didn't get there till like 10 pm.

And, at 5am the next morning, tournament insanity began!

Because it was just debate, there were extra rounds. My friend Paul and I were also crazy (or perhaps ignorant...you never know) enough to try a new form of debate which we've never done before called "parliamentary debate." Styled after, of course, the British Parliament.

So combined with that and the usual amount of debate, I debated a total of 11 rounds, which is roundabouts of 11 hours of debate.

11 hours.

That's 11 hours of having your ideas beat to a pulp, and then having to muster up the brainpower to attempt to beat their ideas to a similar pulp.

With no speech to balance it out.

So at this present moment, I am thoroughly out of my mind, and fear I shall remain so for quite awhile.

Optical Illusion.

{Part 2 of 2 posts that are somewhat related....heh. This is the [more refined] impromptu speech I gave at Nationals. This version might be slightly longer than what I gave....but hey.}

Wait! No! realized I've never posted about Nationals! (this is not the speech, btw)

Real quick, here's a run down.

It didn't quite feel like Nationals because I didn't have anything to work on. No speech to worry about, no debate case to go over, nothing to memorize or freak out about.

...except impromptu.

But the thing about impromptu, as I mentioned last time, is that it's not something you can think about, it's something God gives you - it's something you just do. And going into the tournament I so desperately wanted God to do something with my speeches - with me. My first two rounds were kinda bad....I mean, they'd have done fine at a qualifier level - but they definitely weren't national quality, and it was really discouraging.

My last round however, was the best. The funny thing was that I got to the end of my prep time and the only thing I had written on my paper was "we walk by faith, not by sight." (ironic, isn't it?)

I had nothing in my head. I literally thought, "Oh crud. I'm a nationally qualified speaker, there is actually an audience in here, and I have nothing. I'm going to get up and embarrass myself in front of everyone."

But as I got up there, God gave me the passion, the words, and the examples. Just right there - right as I needed them.

Isn't He amazing?

So here you are.

As you probably noticed, I have glasses - as some of you do as well. And to get your prescription for your glasses, you go to the eye doctor. Now if you've ever been to the eye doctor, you probably know those funny pictures they give you - little optical illusions that don't make any sense - and then ask you absurd questions like "how big is the ladybug NOW?" and supposedly make a lot of sense out of it.

Usually, it doesn't make much sense - to us - but optical illusions really don't. That's why they're called illusions - to give us a feeling or a sensation of something that isn't really quite the truth. And what I'd like to talk about today is just that - optical illusions - how things aren't always as they seem. First I'd like to look at this in a historical example, next in my own life, and lastly how I see God working in optical illusions.

Helen Keller - we all know who she is - the girl who was blind and deaf. The entire world must have seemed like an optical illusion to her. Can you imagine growing up not being able to see or hear the world around you? Yet she went on to lead an extremely normal life. She may not have been able to see or hear, but that didn't mean that the whole world was as she saw it. She learned to overcome the challenges she met.

But how about my life? In summer of 2009, my family left my church - a church I had grown up in and learned from for years. I was just becoming involved in a lot of ministries and finding a place I felt able to serve God in. I was growing, learning, and getting to know God - and I couldn't understand why in the world God would take me away from something that brought me closer to Him.

To this day, leaving that church still seems like an illusion to me, and I still don't fully understand why God did it.

But that is the beauty of an optical illusion, and how God works in our lives.

Let me take you back to the example in the beginning - about the eye doctor. See, I can't make any sense of what's going on with the crazy illusions the eye doctor puts in front of my face - but the eye doctor knows exactly what's going on, and he's got a reason for everything that he sticks in front of my face.

And my God, my beautiful, wonderful Savior - He is the great eye doctor, and He knows exactly why He places various things in our lives. We may not understand or be able to make sense of the things in life, but we can rest assured, knowing that our God has a greater plan in mind.

I have a little bookmark at home, with a picture of a giant, furry dog on the front - with so much fur, in fact, that it covered his eyes completely. And the caption on the front said "We walk by faith, not by sight."

It's an amusing picture, but it's so true. Sometimes we are angry at the way we are made or the circumstances in our lives because we feel it hinders us or is keeping us from something more - as I'm sure Helen Keller felt, and I know I felt when I left church.

But in Paul's letter to the Corinthians he encourages us that "our light affliction is but for a moment - and is nothing compared to the exceeding glory we will experience when we spend eternity with Christ."

We walk by faith - and not by sight. See, Paul goes on to say that the things which are seen - are temporary. But the things that are not seen, are eternal. For what is hope, if you already see it? For you do not hope in what you see - but what you do not see.

My challenge to you today is to remember, that we walk by faith, and not by sight. So often I think, "yeah, we walk by faith, that's easy." But in the face of an illusion that I simply do not understand - it's not as easy as it sounds. But I can peacefully rest in the knowledge that I worship a God who does not fail - and who holds me in the palm of His hand.

Next time you see an optical illusion, don't let it remind you of the confusion, but of the Creator - who has a plan - because He who has begun a good work in you - will complete it. Thank you.

This is what I do in debate.

We're nerds, asians, debaters, and we've been at speech camp all week pretending to act mature under the cleverly disguised title of "super-varsity." What can we say?

Check it out on Shorty & Shrimpy's blog. :D

In case you were worried

As blog readers rarely are, but just to reassure myself that I am reassuring you that I have not fallen off the face of the earth, here I am.

I'm suffering from a terrible case of post-speech-tournament-disorder and withdrawals from lack-of-seeing-speech-friends.

Because of this, brain simply refuses to put the thoughts and events of the the 2011 NCFCA National tournament into understandable English. I am, however, extremely grateful for your prayers and thoughts. It was a marvelous tournament and I not only enjoyed it, but learned a few things as well. A thorough and more serious update is in the makings, I promise.

Alright, let's recap this whole life thing.

So.

::squint::

I believe there are still a few blog readers out there?

::squint::

Maybe just a couple. I've been rather negligent, haven't I?

(is that the right word? It sounds right, anyway.)

(just kidding, I looked it up on google, so it is the right word.)

I'm boring you, aren't I? Well buckle up, because I'm going to like post about all the tournaments, in like, one post. Are you ready? (that was too many likes in one sentence...)

The tournament season started out fast and furious this year with the Id-a-HO! tourney! In which Bec placed FIRST with her AWESOME humorous, she and her brother placed FIRST in duo, my dramatic placed 6th, and RAYMOND PLACED 2ND IN HIS ORIGINAL SPEECH! I also managed to BREAK IN IMPROMPTU, which was kind of amazing/shocking/amazing/shocking.


Despite all awesomeness of the tourney, I came home and promptly got a 101 F fever which refused to go away all week, despite the amount of work I had to do.

Barely following the week I was sick - was the Puget Sound tournament!! By far one of the most enjoyable, relaxing, and fun. I don't remember what my speeches got, except that I broke to FINALS in impromptu, and placed 5th. Yeah. Kind of mind blowing. My God is really awesome.

(this is DI....semis, I think? yeah, semis.)

My brother and his duo partner (who have like the most awesome duo ever) made finals for their duo. That was pretty epic.

Next I had a lovely 3-week break (in which I did NOT get sick!) until the NEXT tourney, which was at Seattle Pacific University.

This tournament was probably the worst tournament all year. Sort of an emotional roller coaster and I didn't break with any of my speeches. It was, however, the biggest qualifier in the nation, and Raymond placed very well in all 3 of his speeches. But God did some pretty amazing things at that tournament too - like teaching me that I'm not doing any of this in my own strength.


They gave us foot-long sub sandwiches (and nothing else) everysingleday for lunch. Yeah. I have a love/hate relationship with subway now, thanks to that.

After this qualifier, there was somewhat of a break, I believe, before the STOA tournament. This tournament was pretty laid back (could be because I didn't debate :P ) but I ended up breaking in ALL 4 of my events (crazy compared to last time) and...it was just really cool how when I wasn't in it to win, and was in it just for the fun of it and the message I had to share, that God was able to bring me farther with it.

This is our amazingly epic club sign. It used to be really dull, so we took it down and re-designed it on the back: starting a trend and thus influencing about 4 other clubs to do the same. None of them was as awesome as ours though. :)


This picture has a rather interesting story to it. From Left to Right is Paul, Micaela, Conor, and me. Paul and I were duo impromptu partners, and Michaela and Conor were partners as well. We were all wearing red, but the funny bit was that Paul's red matched Michaela's, and my red matched Conor's. Paul and Michaela were also both wearing grey, and Conor and I were in all black. Hehehe.
Duo impromptu is WAY TOO MUCH FUN. You go in, draw three places, three conflicts, and three sets of 2 characters, and combine them to make a really whacky story. It's great fun. :)

16th place for duo impromptu was NOT expected, and was ridiculously fun. This is the president of STOA, Mr. York.

This was either impromptu, dramatic, or original oratory, but I don't remember which. :P

This is the flier for the DO HARD THINGS conference in July. You should all come, because it's going to be AMAZING. And as you might be able to tell, I was just a little bit excited. :)


Okay, so maybe I'm *slightly* easily amused....

Lots of stories and pictures from regionals coming soon.... :)

Here we go again.

It's the week where you pack up about half of your life and drag it across the state.
Where your most prized possessions become your script submission forms.
Where you wear a suit day in and day out and don't look weird.
The kind of week where copious amounts of sugar, caffeine, and snack food is not unusual.
And where the only way you make it through is by the grace of God.
Prayers are most appreciated.

Tomorrow will be really relaxed, as will Friday. But on Thursday I get/have to do 4 debate rounds and 3 speech rounds. [insert appropriately already-exhausted-look here]

And somehow, I managed to forget to bring pajamas.

Again.

=P

Happiness. A lot of it.

Because tournaments are just that amazing.

And most unfortunately I don't have time to post very much right now except that...

I QUALIFIED FOR REGIONALS IN DEBATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And therefore have met the first of my large-ish goals for this year. Score.

I also made it to finals in impromptu, which I'll talk about more later, but it was very amazing. And I have lots of other amazing tournament things to tell you, but I have to scoot off to be productive, since I got behind on a lot of productivity during the tournament (most specifically productivity as it relates to educational...things)

Yup. Alrighty. That's all for now!

-Hnanah
because I typed my name wrong and then decided to leave it that way. who types their name wrong anyway? I'm guessing I'm not the only one, just most people backspace before making such an embarrassing mistake.

Alright now.

Poor blog. It's feeling neglected. As it is, there hasn't been much to write about lately. The Idaho tournament came and went, with much success, laughs, and fun all around. 'Twas a grand tournament. I came *this* close to qualifying for Regionals in debate, and qualified in both my Dramatic Interp and Impromptu. Raymond placed 2nd with his Original Oratory, and I'm sooooo proud of him.

The week directly following was supposed to be a super busy week filled with lots of speech writing and case-revamping, but I was ill all week and couldn't do much, which was rather irritating. So now I'm cramming for the tournament that starts tomorrow. Isn't that grand?

And it's supposed to SNOW tonight. Of all the worst ideas, it's supposed to SNOWLkjdfsa;f skdf seriously. It was supposed to snow in January. not right before a tournament. Eej. What's with you, Seattle?

In other news, thank you very much for voting on my video! Unfortunately, I didn't make the top 10, but I do get to play background music for the little event they're hosting, which should be fun.

Hm. Well, I think that's all the update I have for right now. sigh.

Oh, Oh, Oh! [again]

Remember this post?

Didn't think so. That's why I posted it again for you. :-)

Anyhoo. We're going to I-da-ho! For a speech and debate tournament!

*freaks out* I am SO not ready.

Prayers would be appreciated.

Ze blog will likely be a bit quieter for the next few weeks... ttfn!