Not Every Argument Is The Same

Dear Followers,

Sometimes, peer pressure can produce some very unexpected results. During the summer of 9th grade, the only thing I was focusing on was playing videogames, going swimming, and waking up to get yelled at by Coach Prondzinski every Monday through Thursday. Who would have thought that one conversation would alter the course of my high school experience forever?

One day, I went to the weekly party at Katherine Law's luxurious yet comfortable home in Minnetonka. After a night of good food, good friends, and good fun, I found myself on the green couches in the basement in front of the 9-television wall display (only a few actually work). To my left was Cosette Haugen, and in front of me was Evan Chen. They were talking about how they were going to enter the Wayzata Debate Program this coming school year.

Debate? I had heard of the activity before briefly from my fun running experiences with Alex Aronovich and Oliver He. That was that silly class where kids yelled at each other over things like alternative energy right? Why were Evan and Cosette going to enter the class? Out of plain curiosity, I decided to join the conversation. When I got home the next day, disheveled from a night on the floor, I decided to ask my mom about debate.

Turns out my mom had been talking with Renu aunty (yes, every Indian mother is an aunty), Avi Kumar's mother, and she had found out that Avi had done the program as a freshman. By merely saying the word "debate," my mother became swept up in her ingrained practice of not allowing her child to fall behind the Indian standard line. Before I had even decided, a mixture of peer pressure and parental desire had put my name down on the list. The rest of summer felt like waiting to be shipped to a distant war zone.

The first day of sophomore year, when I stumbled into the debate classroom in the C-wing of second floor, I didn't know what to expect. Right away I noticed Yasir Udin. During the summer he was in the same Trojan Power session as I was, and we had ripped up the dodge ball circuit clad in wife beaters and black shorts. Dropping my new Palmer on the table, I integrated myself as quickly as possible with the older debaters. After all, most everybody in the class was a freshman.

Boy was I in for a ride. The year just went faster and faster, and I got more confused with each passing lesson. From textual and functional PICs to impact calculus to spreading and extending, debate was far more that I had bargained for. In the interest of maintaining my 4.0 GPA, I studying hard into the night to overcome my debate coach's ridiculous and vague tests. I would always tell myself every night, "just one year, then you're done." Well, that didn't happen.

I continued to debate after novice year. Not a single day goes by that I don't stop to think how honored I am to be a member of the debate community. For people outside our community, understanding why we love what we do is useless. I could try and explain to you why I love staying up late to read conspiracy theories and political dispatches, but you wouldn't be convinced. I simply love what we do because nobody else does what we do.

The community. No other activity allows high school students to meet and bond quite like debate does. Heck, I hadn't even heard of many of the schools in Minnesota before doing debate. You would expect an activity like debate to force teams to develop a heap of animosity towards others because of the highly competitive and aggressive nature of the activity. The exact opposite is true. Debaters respect one another simply because they are debaters. We are all equals, and we understand each other like nobody else can.

The time in between rounds is filled with gossip, mini debates, Starcraft and Counter Strike LANs, hugs, eating, and just general hanging out. I would have never though that with in the span of one year I would have friends from all over the state, from Eagan, Blake, Minneapolis South, Eden Prairie, Edina, Rosemount, Saint Paul Central, Hyland Park, and more.

People of all ages are involved in the debate community. I don't even want to guess how old my coach is, although we have postulated that she lived during the dawn of debate. In debate, high school students and college students interact like its no big deal. Three of my assistant coachs are in their late twenties, yet when I talk to them I feel like I am talking with another high school student. This isn't a statement about their maturity, but rather a statement of how comfortable the debate atmosphere is.

And then of course there are the arguments themselves. The moment when you understand or discover something that probably nobody else in your entire high school knows about is heavenly. Not only do we learn about many things in debate, but we learn about what I like to call, "critical education." It isn't enough to make an argument. You need to understand how arguments interact with one another, where flaws can be found and exploited, and which arguments are going to be the strongest to make.

Most of what I have said above is incoherent. I am not going to lie, to try and explain everything about debate would be impossible. I just felt that given the circumstances, a small insight into my debating experience was needed. If you had expected an explanation of debate, this is not the right place to be. I am sorry, but this round I am not going to disclose.

Debate Is Life, The Rest Is Just Prep,
Noel