A Remorseful Critic
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.
[tags]forensics, speech and debate, debate[/tags]
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