One of the Best School Activities to do in High School
I owe a lot to my high school Speech and Debate team.
Earlier today, I was taking a break from my school work and found myself cleaning off my work bench, on which I found a ribbon from earlier this year, a ribbon I had received at the 2020 Colorado State Speech and Debate Tournament way back at the end of January. I’ve got a few of these ribbons, but this one is a bit different than a majority of the ones I have. This one reads ‘Judge’.
I had the great opportunity this year to once again be a volunteer judge at the state tournament, after three years of participating myself as a student. I can’t tell you how many memories of my own team during high school that come flooding back when I see the students having such a great time at the competition. It’s encouraging to see, students who have worked hard at something they enjoy and that practice shows in the quality of their performance. But also, they’re just having a good time with it all.
The rest of this year’s spring has of course thrown a bit of a wrench into the normal Speech and Debate schedule, but I still believe that even in quarantine, high school students who are able should be encouraged to work on writing a speech or practicing lines from their favorite movie or play, maybe reading and reciting poetry, or even writing short little stories that they could perform for someone. Maybe when school returns to normal, they’ll be confident enough and prepared enough to join their school’s speech team.
There are so many great reasons for a student to join the team if they’re able, things I saw personally during my years on the team.
The Sense of Community
I wouldn’t have called myself completely an introvert in high school but I definitely was on the shy side, sticking mostly to my routine and my small but close friend group. I had an interest for the theater and performance, having loved stories and movies from an early age. All that was missing was a group of friends who shared that interest. Those in my immediate friend circle weren’t about to get up on stage with me, being too shy themselves, and I found that there were times even I was too animated for them, and my theatrics labeled me as an interesting person to say the least. Little did I know, there was a group of other students with a similar interest, meeting twice a week in a classroom just down the hall. Once I met them, my life changed.
Those on the speech team were a group of characters, each enthusiastic about their own part of the competition. The debaters were quick to pull out random facts and seemingly useless knowledge, only to spin it to perfectly fit every conversation. Those who performed poetry pieces were often dramatic and always had a story to tell. And each one of them was always there to lend a hand to their teammates in need for any reason, there for moral support after not just speech competitions but also other school events. We cheered each other on and grew close on the long bus rides to tournaments, often talking of silly things but also of our goals for the future.
We were an inseparable group.
Exposure to Literature and a Love of Reading
I knew students within the Speech and Debate team who actually didn’t enjoy or appreciate reading, and yet found a liking for literature through the competition. With each student on the team having a different project to work on, practice sessions were a great time to be exposed to a variety of literary works and plays. Those who found that they couldn’t connect with books and stories before discovered a liking for stories now. Both practice sessions and actual rounds at tournaments became a great way to hear stories that some of us would never have heard otherwise.
Public Speaking and Confidence
Now, it’s no easy feat to perform alone in a room sometimes full of high school students, family members and strangers, and most intimidatingly, up to three judges watching your every move and listening close to every line. Our team worked hard to make sure we supported each other, knowing that a lot of us had never been under such pressures. We sat in on teammates’ performances, giving them high fives and smiles when they did a good job.
The confidence gained through years of competition and nerves of performing something special to me has impacted my life even years later, helping me with positions I would go on to have in college. I found myself being the leader of multiple clubs in my undergrad years, and without that time practicing how to craft speeches and present in front of others that came from being on the team, I would not have been able to keep those positions.
