Make Debate Matter: IIDC 5

So let me start with the things I^ve gone through for this week (or more than, if I may so..) For the past weekdays I haven^t been posting, I was in the Inquirer Inter-collegiate Debating Championship (pic 1, left) with my TDC family. Yep, I found a new one.

Things are starting to look up for me. Although my dad still rants about my being in debate, he has simply no right to oppose about my only source of joy for the moment of not having school.

Saturday:
Adjudication exam (pic 2, right). Wasn't that hard, I actually found it fun to answer. There was a live sample debate with Joan and Grace as participants. Some were horrible, others were okay, and Thomasians rocked!
Yes, I am biased.

Monday:
My first day in the Philippine Debate Society. I chaired for the first round of the eliminations with UPD-C and Lyceum-A debating (pic 3, left). I got to meet a lot of people (both the best and the worst, mind you) of the petulant world of debate.

There were the Gods: Kuya Franco (UST^s very own world debate champion!), Bobby Benedicto (the pseudo-heterosexual of ADMU), Glenn (senior citizen of ADMU? Nah, just kiddin^.), Carl Ng (the guy with the nice stance from UPD) and Kuya Eric dela Cruz (former president of TDC).

The Dinosaurs: Ateneo people (^nuff said.. **Mavy kneels on the floor and cries for being so unworthy**)

The ^Im-so-good-I-end-up-sucking-even-more^: wouldn^t tell a soul.. (but primarily, these are the people who are both interestingly and alarmingly too confident even though their cases are made up of crap -- loads of it.)

The Lost Souls: hrmm.. mostly people from far away schools (and I mean that literally). They usually don^t know what they^re doing there in the first place. They talk for two minutes (that^s about a minute and fifty seconds of incomprehensible mumblings here and there) and go back to their seats.

The Showbees: Pat Evangelista, Kuya Joel from FACDEM (and I^m not cursing..), Nicolo Cabrera (the ever so OC-OC Tournament Director) and

The Beautiful: that^s TDC.

Tuesday:
Jaded and praying. (pic 4, center)
I chaired for two rounds and paneled for the other one.
Kuya Joel rocks as a chair adj.
The Lost Souls were pitiful.


Wednesday:
The wildest break night party of the century. Imagine seeing Nino dance (lol).
No more chairing for me. Also, I wasn^t able to break (some things are based on circumstances and not on scores) but I felt better when Kuya James gave me a hug and said, ^I heard a lot of good things about you. Keep it up!^

And Kuya Iggy: Ano, AUDC na, AUDC??

One thought in Mavy^s mind: Asians? Here I come!!!

Thursday:
Off to get my clearance and to go back to the unreal world. Bad schedule for summer classes. And a bigger thought, classes will destroy my chances to joining the Asians Universities Debating Championship.
So sweet.

Got home early. A lot of good things. Thank you, God.
My dad and my older sister are in good terms already after the year-long cold war between them both. Mischa, my niece, came over with my sister to spend the night with us and to go to the doctor the day after as well.

Sigh. I^m missing a lot these days.
But this is my life now.
Or death toll, as some would say.

No rest. Just home and debate.

Friday:
Induction of new CSJ Editors. I am now officially the new English Literary Section Editor of the College of Science Journal.
Kit, our EIC, was so kind to buy us food during the meeting. The yearend report was awesome. And the picture-taking, well, took quite a long time.

Ate Cy^s Team made it to the Finals (although they lost to ADMU A, it was an honorable defeat). Kevin^s team only made it till Octo^s.
Championship Dinner was fun, just because of TDC being there and the variety of programs the UP Debate Society came up with. Kevin and Kuya Mok-Mok won the Separated-at-Birth award and Kuya John won Miss Congeniality.. imagine that!

One of the runners-up for the ESU Public Speaking Competition had a brilliant speech during the intermission round. Here^s the gist of what he said:
Why is it that only a few people in the world understand how fun and how hard it is to debate? You hang around with your friends at school and they ask you if you won the competition, and you tell them you were only able to break. And they mock you for not winning the competition but they always fail to understand just how hard it is to atleast be in the Octo^s. And then you ask your mom for 1500 bucks and she goes on and say, ^Why do you insist on joining that competition when you never even win?^
It only says one thing, that debaters are not only the dumbest people on earth but also the most passionate ones.

Saturday:
Science Parliament meeting. Plans for SDS and Summer Training.
My first debate for summer.
And I was horrible as a second speaker.

Mavy^s conclusion: I^m born to be a whip!