I intended to post this one on my Multiply since it included several pictures, but somehow I wanted to tell a short story about my experience in this event that I thought it would be too long for an album description in Multiply. Since Blogger is my official blog provider way back my second year high school, I decided to share here my encounter on the three sessions I and my team spent debating with other teams. But having this irresistible urge to update my Multiply, I resorted to posting something there and here.

Nakakainis. Haba naman ng intro re posting. Haha. Okay to my main stuff.

I was never a debater. Or to put it as-a-matter-of-factly-way, I'm not an official debater. But then my classmate Van (thanks to him) made me realize that for me to join this cup all that I need was to be a freshman and to be able to reason. Well, I fulfill those requisites, I'm not just certain on the second one because my mind randomly turns mushy and makes me speak weird and nonsensical things. Haha. Moving on, even with this hesitancy I had in my mind, I signed up for DLCC and just told my self, "whatever will be." [Actually, I became fully convinced on joining this event when Ms. Frances made a deal that we would get a letter grade higher if we joined. :P]

We were three in the team, Van, Liz and I. Van was our whip, Liz our prime minister and I the deputy speaker. That was the way it was from our first match until the end. I really wanted to hug these people so tightly, they always did the research for our arguments while I concern myself with my own ones (I always have something to do before meeting them, except for the third and last time). However, that did not meant we did not work together. Of course we did, and that became our bonding times (CHEESY) . Thankfully, our hard work kind-of paid off. For something raw [in potential] like us, as mentioned by Miss Frances on our way home, "Nagulat talaga ako!"

We participated in three debates:

1st round

We are teamed up against Ateneo high students. I remembered Anne (she watched that one), Liz and I said something like, "Sweeeeaaaaar?!?!? They're like high school pa kaya.... :))" Just when we thought that it's unfair-ish, these kiddos (one who happened to be R37's Seraps brother) surprised us by showing they were equally good (or even better than us :>) The motion was about "This house would ban mail-order marriages". We were on the Government side, meaning we were supporting this one. These guys, I admit, could get away with their argument/counterproposal had they further expounded their reasons responding to ours. So there, the adj concluded we won the first round.

2nd round

The motion on this one was "This House believes that patients should not have a right to die." We got the Opposition side, meaning that we had to go against this one. Our prayers worked, and we won this one. And we were so happy because we had a chance in semis (ONE LETTER GRADE HIGHER) :)). But eventually we felt reluctant because we happened to watch the other ongoing debates and saw how REALLY GOOD they were. [I meant the boldface, they're not just for mere emphasis, they're for justification purposes. :)] So there, we already congratulated ourselves for making up to that point and just when we were ready to accept what we thought we had gotten, Frances sent me a message saying "CONGRATULATIONS!!!". I wasn't able to process it (lagi naman e) so I asked Liz, I said, "When frances said congratulations did that mean we're in the semis?" She replied immediately, saying, "I don't know e." There. We were not too much of ambitious girls and we couldn't contact Van that moment so we supposed she congratulated us for winning the second round, and not for being in the semis. Hours after, Frances told me, "Hello nakapasok kaya kayo sa top 4. Semis???"

Just to prove how clueless I was at that time, my Chem blockmate Arnold (who also happened to be a part of dlcc but blatantly lied to me by saying he's a spectator :P) notified me of the same thing and added that I should send a confirmation message to Ice Lacsamana (sister of my English blockmate Sassy). And I just knew that on 10.00pm and the dlcc website indicated failure to confirm by 10.00 meant forfeit of the slot. Hahaha. He mentioned that it got extended to 10.30 so I still texted anyway and had my slot secured..

3rd round

Our last round. To tell you the truth, I'm already having qualms just after I saw the motion, which was "This house would allow selling exotic animals." For some reason, even after we listed our arguments I just thought that there was still something missing. While my other team members busied themselves strengthening our arguments, I kept thinking of the framework which our opponent would define (In the debate format we're applying, the government side specify the parameters which we must disprove or justify to be unbeneficial or worse, detrimental) mainly because I knew that what I made up at that time was still not ripe for the coming debate. Van and Liz told me to not worry about that one (as if I listened) and instead focus on fortifying my statements and reasons. We got help from our teacher and the other competing group (CONSPIRACY! joke, we just happened to have the same teacher and it just happened that she wanted to meet us both) and really tried to bring out the best. (Cliche much).

And yes, what bothered me the whole afternoon happened exactly at our last debate. The definition of the government seemed the escalated version of what we expected. Oh yes, we predicted the introduction of zoos (Sorry to those who may not understand) but we did not, or at least I did not foresee the issue of privatization coming up. Oh well. And remember what I said about my mind becoming randomly mushy? Haha. It also happened. So there, my 4-page outline on "Selling exotic animals harms the trade and industry, and society"
became reduced to merely almost two pages which mostly dealt on the latter. Haaay~ And I didn't entertain any points (even if our strategy actually included me not recognizing those, but still i regretted it, SORRY GUYS) and basta, I lost my composure, to sugarcoat it. So there. After that I got a hunch already of what would turn out, and of course, I did not want to let that slip out of my mouth while the other team would not do the same. Turns out, we felt the exact feeling. Haha. And we just conceded to our both opponents being winners (although the 0ther team were yet to cool down because of the intense atmosphere). You know the rest: our assumptions were well-founded.

Round 4
(We're not included :P)

Yay, we watched the last round. I was seated beside Ms. Frances who was in turn, seated beside her teacher friend (these two became the source of some several commotions in the round :P) The motion was, "This house would ban political dynasties." To head to the main event itself, man, that was, AWEsome. I meant that for myself. It's not like I had not seen really good debaters before (take my friend Jana Cabuhat and my schoolmates Ella Masamayor and Oliver Felisilda), but it was something to witness it live, before and after. The 25 minutes were all laden with sensible remarks and the speakers were very well able to answer the points of information (There's this person [I wouldn't mention here who] whom Frances and her friend supported and rooted for by saying "Hear, hear!" and me also, by saying "Rock On!" Hindi lang siya. Maraming beses lang kasi e. :)) ) In my opinion, although that did not change the fact that they really were on equal footing, I just thought that M06 got an advantage for they could always use (which they did) the fundamental definition of democracy and expound further on that, while on the other hand the government must prove that constitutional democracy was restrained with the transfer of power from one member to another + enumeration of strong examples why political dynasties etc. Or maybe I based that again on my own standards (talaga naman o). Anyways, I reiterate once again that they were both equal in skills, it just that one had to come up better than the other technically, that's why it was a cup.

At the end of the day, although I was late for the DLSU chorale concert that was really important for me to attend (because my friend's part of it!), I still departed from school contented and satisfied because as Ms. Frances put it, "O 'di ba? At least natalo kayo ng champions! :))" JOKE. I hate cheesy parts so I won't mention [it] anymore. This was really the reason: ONE LETTER GRADE HIGHER.

See? Now I had to do something to get B+.

p.s. R19A and R37A are kind-of friends already.