debate... was not such a bust after all... :) my initial reasons to join debate (choice made last wednesday) were firstly, i did not want to go for class. i felt fed up at the time. just wanted to get away from class. secondly, i wanted the cetificate.

that was before things got radical.

they wanted affirmative. they sent me, saying all sorts of stuff like i'm their lucky charm, you know, funny things lah. under normal circumstances i would have protested and laughed but i wasn't in the mood to laugh. (duh?)

i drew the lots, and got opposition. the other girl from Tun Fuad was like, HAPPY.

she said to her teamates: "I TOLD you we'll get affirmative! *laugh chuckle grin smile whatever-else-expression-of-happiness*"

i must say here that i don't really get what i want. :) 'bad luck' in a way (not that i believe in luck. God is not luck.) so next time... don't depend on my 'lucky charmness' haha.

we were up against Tun Fuad in the first qualifying round. all the speakers were gentlemen, cheerful, confident, but most of all, friendly.they came over to talk before the match, for a bit, and smiled, smiled.

smiled some more.

i didn't really talk much. i'm naturally an introvert. besides that, i wanted to look confident, since i realy did not want them to think that i'm scared, thus, attack me. i'm the third speaker, a vunerable position to be in.

also, i was a bit nervous.

oh, yes, a bit ONLY bah.

a bit only.

ok, who am i kidding.

i think they (tun fuad guys) were, ahem, quite fond of melissa. especially Jamson. (details not included here. melissa will stick her pencil into my forehead)

but still, they were good, although they said they'd try not to be fierce (which also, i think, is on melissa's account).

okay, well, the term 'good' here is subjective. in my opinion, they were fierce, intimidated us, and VERY confident.

which is what i only wish i can say for us as well.

anyway, we won. i did not expect this, but i was not very surprised because we worked like bulls getting ready for this topic our substance (isi kandungan/ points) were, rather, better than theirs. There were other, well, factors also why we won. I can't really explain here.

But they were good. They were confident, and their Style and Strategy, I'm very sure, kicked ours right out the window. Their second speaker, i think, got Best Speaker award. Jamson?

Tun Fuad people were actualy helping us with this by giving us their points. Thanks. :)

After that it was all congratulations, you did good, and so on, and we went down to eat, then at around 11.45am we started getting ready for the next topic, although we didn't really do much until quarantine at 1pm.

WELL. Melissa drew the lots next, and we got Opposition. according to Nana, it's good because we have a lot of points for this. At first we though our opponents would be from St. Francis. I was like,

doomed.

Then I heard Sanzac.

It was actualy Smack, or something like that. SMK Agama Kota Kinabalu.

If Tun Fuad had butt-kicking Style and Strategy, THESE agama students had SUPER head-bashing butt-kicking stomach-punching Style. They were straght up confident, lean-mean machines. Or, at least the second and third speakers. The first speaker was a sweet girl. :)

I didn't think much of them (at least they're not St. Francis or Lok Yuk or All Saints, right?) but later on Puan Teo told me that they were an elite school. No wonder lahh... they really do seem like elite students. They were GOOD.

But for some unknown reasons, we won.

O___O

OKay guys, I'm not kidding, this time we were already talking about going home, and how nice to have the certificates, and stuff like that. We were so sure we'd lost. Our supporters (Daphne, Stanely, Rowena, Parvisher, Divya, Douglas, his friend) were all acting like retards, holding hands and making small mexican waves to cheer us up. (i think. the real reason they acted like that? i do not know.)

the only indication we'd won was how much our chairperson student smiled and smiled. He also chaired the qualifying roung we had against Tun Fuad.

When the results were announced...

Our supporters and Melissa and Nana screamed so loud the adjudicators nearest to us, a man, covered his ears. I immediately leaned back down as far as i could in my chair, but i couldn't stop grinning and said

"what the heck what the heck..."

but the adjudicators were all smiling. Best Speaker award went to the third speaker of our opponents, Syazwani. Gosh she was superb man, she got my knees shaking!

well, they made a big fuss over it, melissa was calling up people to tell them we'd won, everyone acting as though we'd actually won the debate competition. thanking the adjudicators and stuff. (not a proper thing to do lah, i know.)

but i guess, since KKHS was always considered weak in these English competitions, getting thus far was a big deal. :)

one thing about this quater-final was that we had to go through the battle during a very, very heavy downpour. Nana had to SHOUT. We couldn't listen properly to the opponents, had to try very hard. I knew I couldn't shout like Nana so I stood closer to the adjudicators by going up front.

well... we went home, and had to start immediately, preparing the next topic (semifinals) because we totally did NOTHING for this topic. we never thought we'd go this far.

but in the end, our preparations were not enough for us to overcome Lok Yuk.

yes, people.

of all the other three schools, namely All Saints, Lok Yuk and SMK Kolombong,

we had to get

LOK YUK.

On the plus side, it's very good we didn't get All Saints. Or else.

doomed.

BUT I'd rather we got Kolombong. I don't know why, i mean, i guess i shouldn't be underestimating schools. but Lok Yuk is the defending champion. as i said.

doomed.

our preparation for semi-finals was...

weak. very WEAK.

We had our stands and main points, but because this was a more high-level topic (the success of a nation is measured by its economy) it was very hard to sort the ideas out. our research was not done, we did not have enough facts, so it was up to our logic thinking and power of persuasion to win.

we could not depend on our substance, like we did for the first two battles.

we only printed our very feeble speeches this morning.

we only prepared cue-cards in the quarantine room.

we were tired, sick,

and because the toilet couldn't be used, me and nana had to go all the way to the surau, and came back to find the judges waiting. horrible.

in short, i can safely say we lost because of BAD preparation.

We got affirmative for this. A sudden change, since we were oppositions in the last two battles.

our blunders, especially mine, were too horrible. I can't bring myself to describe them in detail.

All I can say is, Lok Yuk had a nice time BASHING us up (yes, BASH).

They commented on where Melissa and Nana stood, why we didn't POI, our mistakes (as if they weren't obvious enough already...), our flaws, how melissa wasted time on this on that, how we don't have a stand...

doomed.

okay, to be honest, we'd still have a chance to win, although it's very, very tiny (because i didn't have enough time and presence of mind to bring out our points strongly in mel and nana's speeches; debate is all about the words you use and how well you can bring our your stand. our stand was clear for the first two battles. this round, though, it was all blurred up...).

but we still had a chance.

until Melia the confused, disco-dancing madgirl came up.

doomed.

I was confused.

Too horrible to describe in detail.

In a nutshell, I actually made the WORST MISTAKE EVER in debate. i feel like puking. it was a wonder why i didn't burst out crying then. the mistake was so big. i knew, for sure, that we'd lost.

DOOMED.

so i threw my cue cards on the table (which some people said was impressive, but seriously.) and started jabbering about whatever my weakened consciousness could grab hold of.

all i remember seeing now is the timekeepers' minute cards, limiting the time that i had to repair my damage...

all i remember hearing is Vincent Soh, the second rival speaker, scoffing and snorting. ...

and the ugly, disco-dancing monkey in the middle, saying sorry to the adjudicators for a mistake that will haunt her...

i so HUMILIATED myself. gosh. this time, we were SURE we'd lost. there was absolutely NO WAY of us winning. We started talking and laughing and discussing about "later on".

I was relieved. I can finally sleep nicely.

But it'd be nice if we had lost minus the humiliation i had bequeathed myself and KKHS.

T___T

Vincent came over. He forgot me and Melissa T__T so sad. but he was really nice, we talked for quite some time.

The First Speaker, Akmal, got the Best Speaker Award. I thought it'd be Vincent, but my judgement is weak because i didn't really pay attention to them.

During their last speech (reply speech) while Vincent was BASHING us up and looking our way, i only looked up at him while writing our reply speech, and smiled.

I heard chuckles from the audience, but i felt very pathetic inside.

They were attacking us like monkeys on bananas, and yet all i could do was SMILE after my horrible mistakes.

But one thing nice I noticed was our previous opponents,

SMK Agama KK

, came back to watch us today.

And you know what? They gave us applause! Not those weak ones, but LOUD ones, even though I sucked so BAD.

Lok Yuk didn't get anything more than single claps from their teacher, although they were GOOD.

I so thank them, our previous opponents from SMAKK. :)

you guys made it not so bad.

so... yeah, that's it. i have to go now, i still feel rather weak. :) chao.