Johnathan has become quite entertaining during dinner. Here you can witness him making up stories and reading us some scary books (from his hands)…

Now that I’ve been judging at tournaments for a short amount of time, I feel that it is only fair to myself and those that I comment on to divulge some personal feeling of the sport. When I joined collegiate forensics (speech and debate), I had no idea what I was really getting myself into. Really. After my first tournament I was hooked though (hey, quarterfinalist in debate helped). In the past two years I’ve never been on such a fast-track of shifting ideas, but as always there is a price.

After my last tournament as a competitor I was so relieved that I wouldn’t have to look at anymore ballots that criticized my speaking and performance. I realize that the goal is to become better, but I think it just wore on me. I also realize that I have lots to learn, but because of the move, I decided that I needed to learn the other side of this game: judging. I must say that it wasn’t what I expected either. Just like when I first forced myself into Public Speaking 101, I also purposefully positioned myself to become a critic, at least for a short while. What I wanted to learn from it was how to have a certain power and wield it responsibly. For those of you reading that haven’t participated or observed a forensics tournament, the judges really do hold an air of authority that is recognized by the vast majority of the competitors. Undeservingly I undertook the challenge, and it has been an awesome learning experience. Once again, the debate community has impacted my outlook on life. Still, now that I don’t carry the nervous tension of someone who is going to deliver 30 speeches over the weekend, I carry the burden of explaining to talented peers that their performance wasn’t as good as the others. That was the challenge that I didn’t expect.

And for the record (and the point of this entire post): Everyone who has stood in front of me to speak this season has deserved my 1.

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