Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Those old times


Watching the opening speeches of both teams in The Arena, I can't help but feel a tinge of nostalgia as I recall my secondary school debating times.

You know those inter-class debates the school organizes as post-exam activities which turn out to be slack activities for most students? I was involved with a couple of them. Those were the days....

I was always the least prepared one. Not that I stooped down on research or preparing script but I always believed in free speech and being impromptu. I always felt a script hindered the little creativity I have, though it does have its use in ensuring one stays to the point and not go off-track which is rather common for me. Now, where was I?

Oh yes, debating. You know, in upper sec, there was this fellow female debater whom I, well, debated with. Hmm of course when I mean debated with, I don't mean I debated with her on things that is I argued with her but rather we argued together. I mean, well, you know what I mean.

Anyway, back to the point. For all the debates I've done with her, I always ended up as the speaker either before or after her, and she would never fail to mention me in her speech. In fact, it was like a tradition; a tradition nobody else saw. I guessed it was motherly in its early stages since she always made it sound as if our opposition bullied me or gearing the opposition up for a powerful speech by me.

Though I never did successfully make a powerful speech in those two years of debating, every mention of me in her speech never failed to elicit a grin from me. Not that [God Forbid] I had a crush on her or any feelings of romantic nature, it was rather the spirit of continuity, like the ebb and flow of the tide. Something like that.

Now I wonder, what would happen when poly students debate? In secondary school, much of what was in your speech came from research, namely Google and Yahoo and Google and Yahoo. Yet, when one is in polyhood, one has garnered enough life experiences to be able to use as fodder for our arguments yes?

Wouldn't the whole debating experience be totally different? After all, [most] poly students know how to use the Internet to aid them in research gathering, [some] know how to dress to suit the occasion, and quite a few have experienced a lot in life already.

Definitely entertaining no?