From Nazareth to Seoul, My Debate Journey So Far.
By: Moataz Istaiti.
The first time I heard the word “Debate”, I was in 10th grade, in High School (2011). I thought it was just another course at school. Debate isn’t a very well known sport in my community. People don’t really know what “Debating” means, whenever I tell people that I’m a debater, I still have to give a seven minutes speech about what debate is.
I fell in love with Debate, from the first moment I was introduced to it, in my high school, in Nazareth. I started learning the basics of debate after school, and at the first it seemed pretty easy, but later on my “nightmare” began. After several months of learning how to debate, it was time for us to participate in an international debate tournament in Thailand!
My first international debate experiment wasn’t something to be proud off. After losing two rounds, I refused to debate. The other teams were much more experienced, and some of them spoke English as a first language, whereas English was our third language. I knew that we stood no chance, and thought that my speech won’t change anything, so I just stopped trying. Other teams and judges were nice enough to try to talk to me and convince me to not give up. I refused at the beginning, but later after thinking about it, I decided to give it another shot.
I’m telling you this story because that event changed my entire view on Debate and probably changed me a lot. It was my first encounter with failure. After 16 years of going through only success at school, I had the opportunity to get a taste of failure.
After having to deal with failure for the first time, I started my real journey as a Debater. I made a promise to myself that I will keep trying, no matter what. I challenged myself to deliver full and complete speeches and the more I trained the better I got.
Debating has changed me and my perception of life. I started seeing both sides in everything and every idea. I became better at thinking critically and independently. And I could find inconsistencies, even in sophisticated arguments. Debate gave me the tool to analyze ideas from different angles.
Today, I study Economics and Business Management at university. The first thing I did as a university student was joining the Debate club, to continue my journey with Debate. I am grateful to those who helped me in my debate journey: coaches, judges, team mates and class mates, who made my debate journey fun, educational and colorful. I’m thankful to my teacher back in high school, who started the first Debate club, and made it possible for us to participate in different international Debate events in Thailand, Korea and Ireland.
I hope that Debate becomes available for everyone in my society, so that everyone can benefit from it. I also hope that one day I’ll be able to contribute to my society and pass on the knowledge I have acquired through Debate.
About Moataz:
Moataz Istaiti is a Palestinian Debater from Nazareth. He went to the Galilee Municipal Experimental High School in Nazareth, and currently is a student of Economics and Business Management, at the Hebrew University, in Jerusalem.
