So many comings-out I’ve had recently. Now, add one more to the list: yes, I was a debate geek. I did a little LD (the policy topics my junior and senior years were really dull: water treatment, zzzzzzz), but my best events were Original Oratory, Humorous/Dramatic Interp, Duo Reading, and Duet Acting.
My high school once kicked NFL and CFL ass, but by the time I got there, they’d long since dropped the debate program. Luckily, our speech teacher wanted to start things up again, and within the first few weeks of my 10th grade year, she’d corralled four of us into a ragtag group of competitors. We did surprisingly well; even at our first tournament I walked with a 2nd place Prose Interp (a category I later came to despise) and a 1st place Duet. Hot stuff, no?
A small point of interest: one of my fellow teammates (the one with whom I shared the aforementioned Duet trophy and with whom I was inexplicably matched up for the rest of my high school years) went on to do very well for herself. There’s a pic of her somewhere on this site. Who could it be? First one to get it right wins a special token of my esteem….
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