Are you trying to tell me something?

Coz, Lord, you've got the timing right. In and out. Me and Paul. He even resorted to poetry to lose stress! Now he's probably running on hilly terrain to lose certain memories. I'm going to the dojo. And i feel like this:

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge

You'd probably recognize that as a My Chemical Romance album, but its strange how it goes around haunting you. After jumping with joy and overreacting (that St Th3 lost) i am now notorious around the debating circuit as Mr Emotion. Not that i care (although, as usual, i feel like i murdered someone) - i'm already retired.

And its official. The Theresians hate me.

They really shouldn't though. I regret the stupid jumping around, i admit, but you have to understand it was three year's bottled emotion - determination, grit and lots of pain. Every debate i lose i improve, from a rude fast speaking buckaroo to someone with a semblance of calm and politeness. And on the way i learnt that hard way that my team, as talented as they individually are, rely on me as the third speaker to make it or break it. A Theresian (Jervinna, i think) remarked casually yesterday before their debate that the third speaker wraps or kills the team. Immediately all the thomians there - Cikgu Mac included, turned to stare at me.

I looked up from an Utada Hikaru article and made choking noises. It did not help.

So what if God gave me the ability to think on my feet? What if i could talk fast? I was a wild card! How much easier it would have been if i had Jervinna's knowledge of the roles of speakers! I wouldn't have caused the legendary fall in the Thomian - Marian debate, we wouldn't have lost last year to St Theresa, and i wouldn't have caused Paul to feel so bad this year.

And why? Because i accidently made a good rebuttal during our second pracitise session agaisnt Aldrin's NS argument.

That is beside the point, really. The point here is this: I once supported St Theresa. Jacintha's generation, against St Thom. I took one look at Carlson's speech and immediately went to the other side, for i know we could not win. Janice was there, we were both equally inexperienced in debate (although i admit she was always a tad wittier than me) and she asked me who i thought would win. After an interruption from Ling i told her that her school would win. It was one of those rare moments we actually agreed on something.

I was right - it was rare. And her school won.

But after awhile i really resented them. They were sapping the spirits of the debates - that they talked good english and they were sooo damn nice. It wouldn't have been that bad, coz i admire most of the Th3sian speakers (Amanda, Jacintha, Janice, Abigail - this year Jervinna had a damn good reply speech against Batu Lintang) but the judges just let style overcome substance. If you've read my blog on the debates last year then you'd probably know how we out-argued the judges. It was painful, but it taught me that just because they're judges doesn't mean they're on-par with our knowledge of the rules. All the other schools had no more spirit, for they knew nobody could topple the great St Th3. And though they didn't have the beniefit of Orlinda's constant drilling of the rulebook into our heads (we probably have about a thousand adjudication briefing's worth of junk) they really looked deflated after several rounds. This year i never mentioned how the internal mechanism of the debates worked to the newbies. I wished Nicholas from St Jo good luck, and prayed for a nervous Joshua.

They had a good time. The seasoned ohters did not.

It is funny really, that then i found the ending to be thoroughly enjoyable. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR COMPLAINTS GOT BLASTED IN THE TEACHER'S FACES.

'A stand is not a repeat of the motion'
[A flashback of the Abdillah teacher telling us it is]

'Do not POI a POI'
[A flashback of Sarah telling me it can be done; Another flashback of a group of judges telling an amazed Paul and me that it was perfectly alright]

What was best?

'State your sources properly and link them back to the argument'
[A flashback to the Greenians saying newspapers are better sources of information than university reports because our PM reads newspapers]

To cap it off, i stymied the rude second Greenian speaker by asking her exactly what Batu Lintang's stand was for the finals (they had none - Gapor had a poor one, but she insisted Batu Lintang had a better stand); commented LOUDLY to Paul how sad some RUDE people couldn't accept POIs properly; and then accurately predicted the winner (Gapor! Yippee!) and the best speaker (Abraham! Double WOOTS!)

Years back, a Labuan debater - Sabrina, i think (Aldrin, Sze Howe, some help here please?) accerately predicted who would win the state level debates between Sabah and Sarawak. She was younger than me, but more matured. I wondered how she knew.

Now, after experiencing good, bad and downright terrible adjudicating, i do know. The finals was judged fairly, and i realize how clever she must have been to be able to realize that so early on in her debating career.

My only regret? That Aaron and Aldrin couldn't get to experience such a satisfying end to the Interschool Debates and their secondary school debating careers.

I've met cool people from almost every team. And i don't deserve it. They do. I was the wildcard.

They were the anchors.