I was nominated by my high school's Speech and Debate coach and chosen to represent the Florida Sunshine District by competing with a team of four other students in the National Speech and Debate Association's National Tournament in World Schools Debate. This tournament took place from June 17-22nd. After months of preparation for the prepared motions released in May, and practice for the impromptu motions which we would learn one hour prior to the start of the competition, my team competed and broke to Triple OctaFinals, meaning we were in the top 64 out of the nearly 200 teams from across the nation in attendance.
Competing at the national level in World Schools Debate was a great experience. Given that my teammates and I had never competed in this event before, it was very exciting to see our hard work pay off and break past the preliminary rounds. I really enjoyed learning a new style of debate, especially one that focused heavily of speech elements, as I had only competed primarily in Congressional debate in the past.
I learned a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses through this experience, and learned a lot about working with a large team, as the majority of speech and debate events are done individually or with one partner. Overall, this was a very great and rewarding experience, and I hope to have the opportunity to compete in World Schools Debate again next year.
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