I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Well, today is the day.

Am I nervous? Sure. But strangely enough, I don’t feel as much trepidation as I did a week ago.


Peace? Oh Definitely.


I think, however, I should be a good deal more nervous.

After all, I’m teaching kids I’ve never met before, in a home I’ve never been to before, with surroundings I know absolutely nothing about, for a speech teacher I’ve only talked to twice.

Of course, I’m sure it will all hit me at exactly 11:15 AM tomorrow morning and I will likely get the feeling that I just broke to finals with no case, no evidence, and no make-up.
(and who hasn’t heard the latter half of that story before?)

All in all, though, I’m really excited. When I first started debating in ’03, I remember hitting the end of my rope in mid-September in my mad search for a debate club and placing a desperate call to the ever-patient Heather. When she got back with me, she said that she’d been in touch with everyone she could think of who would know, and all she could say was that while I lived in the heart of one of the most home-school populous states in the US, debate clubs were a rarity. In fact, Arkansas and New Mexico were the only states in our region that had a state contact.

(Of course, debate has absolutely blossomed in Texas over the past three years. Between the amazing Butlers of Corpus Christi, the awesome Watsons of North Ft. Worth, the quite factual Larimers of Houston, the enthusiastic Umstadtts of Austin, the ever-constitutional Millers of Decatur, and myself in West Ft. Worth/Weatherford, we’ve managed to pull together 40 some odd teams for the last state tournament in 2005; quite a jump from the brave 16 teams at my first state tournament.)

So when I got into my second year of coaching and my first year of debate involvement without competing, my vision has been to see debate expand to those states that don’t currently have it.

While I don’t see debate as “perfect” or an activity that is for everyone, I think it’s a fantastic adventure for anyone who has a love of politics, law, and/or public speaking. I found out about debate for the first time at the beginning of my official senior year and decided to be a “super senior” just so I could debate one more year. Over the years, I have found that my story is a common one. My desire is to see that story become a rarity.

In other words, if you’re not a debater, it’s not because you haven’t heard about it. ;-)

So this is why I think it’s so neat that I get to go to OK. I hope that by this time next year, we’ll see OK teams at the regional tournaments and maybe OK will have a regional tournament of their own.

But at the same time, I remember that I’m only planting a seed and that the seed is extremely small. The primary thing, then, I want the students to walk away with is a new perspective of communication.

Debate, to me, was a continuous exercise in I Corinthians 13:1. It’s one thing to give a speech in public. It’s quite another to debate an issue in public without that issue causing tension between the two. (or four ;-) ) They may have already had this experience, but I hope this will stick with the ones who haven’t.

Aim small, miss small; right?