Debate Society =)

Hey everyone! It's been a while! Sorry about that, all the work has just been piling up. But I'm back now! =)
The post that I'm about to write is about getting involved. I'm going to share my experience from this past weekend when I really got involved... and I loved it!
At the beginning of the school year, I joined the Debate Society. From the very beginning, when the coaches were going over the different speeches and the different parts to debate.... I was COMPLETELY lost. I had NOO idea what was going on and I was more confused than ever. However, a couple of weeks ago, I signed up to attend a tournament at the University of Richmond. I honestly did not know what I was thinking at the time, but I told myself, "ehh why not? could be fun" I was still confused about the speeches and the parts. The words, Kritique, Perm, Framework, Topicality, etc" all swermed in my head... "what does this even mean?!!" I thought to myself. The nervousness started building up as the tournament date got closer and closer. And on top of that... I lost 3 partners! My original partner dropped out because she was just as confused as I am and was too afraid to go because she didnt understand it. My second partner wasnt able to go because someone in his family had passed away. And my third partner cancelled on the day before because she was behind on her school work, and needed to spend the weekend catching up.
I met my partner right before we got onto the bus the next day... We arrived at Richmond around 11:00 at night and went straight to our rooms to sleep...
The next day, I was nervous as ever. I never got the opportunity to have a practice round, so I was pretty much going in blind. The round started, my partner and I was against Cornell. Two hours later, the round finally ended and I took a deep breath. We lost, however... it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. In the next few rounds, we had the weirdest evidence that was run against us! We had some schools that used intergalactics and another school that used depleted uranium. I was thinking to myself... "what the hell evidence do we use against this argument?!" But we were able to manage through the round. The next two days, the teams were debating 8 rounds (my partner and I only debated 7 because we got a BYE for a round). Even though my partner and I didnt win any rounds, (not to sound corny) but I do feel like I won also in a way. I now have a better understanding of what some of the terms mean. There are still some concepts that are fuzzy to me, but I know MUCH more than I did before I even came here!
Overall, It was an amazingg experience. I became good friends with my roommates and I got close with all the other John Jay debaters! On top of that, I learned much more about debating and what I can do to succeed. The idea of getting involved is really essential. I made some great friends after joining the debate team AND I gained much more knowledge about debating and some experiencing IN debating that'll help make me a better lawyer later on because I now (somewhat) know how to argue! =)
I signed up for the Westconn tournament next month, so I'll keep you all updated on that!
Till the next post, have a good weekend everyone!