Another update :)

So sorry for the delay. Here's a quick life update:

1) So yeah, remember that sore throat I had? Well, after I recovered from it, I discovered it was actually Strep throat. So here I was, running around preparing for a tournament thinking, "Man, this is a really bad sore throat" and it turns out it was a little bit worse than that. Go figure.

I'm all recovered now though, besides just an occasional twinge in my throat, but that's to be expected. Strep is no fun. Very painful.

2) The Puget Sound Qualifer: Originally I was planning on competing with my dramatic interpretation here, but because of my strep which knocked me out a couple days, I had to drop the event. Also, once I got there, my voice was threatening to give out on me, I dropped my persuasive as well ::frowns:: sad day. So I went into the tournament competing in Team Policy, Humorous, and Impromptu.

The weather was crazy! The night we got there, it snowed, and in the morning, there was ice under the snow. The whole entire tournament schedule got rearranged and turned upside-down, and we ended up having to drop a speech round, so everyone only competed in two preliminary rounds.

Team policy went pretty well, but not as well as I would have liked. Some strange stuff happened in prelims with some.... interesting judges, but I've come to expect that. Right now, I'm just waiting and trusting in God's timing, so that when the time comes, we'll get favorable match-ups :) Ben and I ended up placing 14th. So okay. ish.

Humorous went very well, I got very positive feedback, and I had a blast competing. In the final round, I was matched up against Creighton Deems, Stephanie Emmons, Devin Kruse, Harrison Scott, and many other excellent interpers. The finals was AMAZING. The audience came ready to laugh, and they packed around 50+ people into the room. We all had so much fun, and all of the competitors were together, cheering one another on and praying for each other. I truly enjoyed that round, and I ended up placing 5th.

Impromptu also went very well. I can't really remember all my draws, but I remember one of my preliminary draws was "A great city is that which has the greatest men and women." For that speech I talked about the three ways that is proven to be true, through 1) architecture, arts, and creativity, 2) integrity, and 3) the greatest city of all.

In semi-finals I drew the word "Oblivious" and I shared about how 1) it can be humorous, 2) the impact it can have on real life situations/the importance of understanding the implications of our decisions and 3) being oblivious when it comes to an eternal perspective.

In finals, I drew a quote from Bertrand Russel that says "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." For this speech I shared the three things that keep wise people/people with great potential from contributing to society, which is 1) Complacency 2) Confidence and 3) Simply a lack of action.

I was so blessed to remember a Teddy Roosevelt quote that said:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

This speech went incredibly well, and I was able to use an excellent closer (that I remember five seconds before I had to close). I ended up placing 1st in impromptu with this speech.

3) Now, I'm back home, and I'm working away at school, and some side-projects, some graphic design and such, and preparing for the next tournament :) Life continues.

Right now, I'm rather hungry. :)

schatzi