NATIONALS DEBATE ROUND 3!!!
WE ARE IN THE QUARTER FINALS!
We were against Yuen Ching Secondary School this time. It was a very interesting topic as we had to draw out the link between the environment and development. In simple words, You need your environment to be stable in order to sustain or further your development. Its very geography like. Think Amazon Rain forest.
Read an account of Andrea's experience of this debate. Its copied directly from her blog with her permission. Take a look!
We call it the miracle story! IT TRULY IS A MIRACLE!
I walked into our debate room to see my pregnant coach in distress. My third speaker, Meira was beside her. She whispered to me a "Hi", her voice was choked, she was struggling to talk. I turned to my coach, She looks at my in despair. "She's lost her voice completely."
"Where's Flora?"(Our 1st Speaker), I asked Ms Naz, Our Coach.
"She didnt come to school today. I called her mum and she said that Flora was sick." The whole room was silent. My voice was half there. I had been sick the whole week. I had an injection for my cough, still didnt work. Our whole team was down. I repeat, THE WHOLE TEAM. I tried practicing my speech, i could barely present half of it, i had too mucch phlegm in my lungs, i was coughing my heart out. I was out of breath.
A few minutes later, Flora comes barging in the room. She starts screaming at Meira to speak. Everyone looks at Flora, shocked. A little misunderstanding, she had a terrible dirroeaha the whole night before. She had her voice, thankfully. An hour passes, meira's voice showed no sign of improvement. She was pumped with medication. The verdict arrived. Meira can't speak. We need to use Rebecca, our reserve speaker. There's nothing we can do. Im thrown to doing third speaker. I have to help rebecca with my 2nd speaker stuff. Its her first time speaking. Flora had to do my summary speech, it was her first time. She had always been a 1st speaker only. Everything was going all wrong. Time passes by painfully. I was told to handle both 2nd and 3rd speaker stuff, incase Meira did get her voice back. Everyone was praying. This was the round to either make or break it.
It's time to leave for the debate. Rebecca was still struggling to digest the issues. The debate was in 2 hours. Everyone was feeling to nervous to do anything. All of a sudden, Meira was trying to speak. We had brought a small mike along. The ones teachers use in class. If by God's grace Meira can speak, the mike would be at her use. Meira could speak a sentence or two. Our coach says there's no point if she can't last for more than a minute. We tried mentally preparing ourselves that we have to go in handicapped and make the best out of it. About 5 minutes after, Meira started pushing her voice out. We tried getting her to practice her rebuttals while on the bus to the debate venue.Alexine timed her. If she could push past 5 minutes, we would have a chance. She managed a 6 minutes presentation. Our hearts nearly leaped out. We got our coach to hear her. If meira had to speak, she had to use the mike despite it looking stupid. She made a decision. She had to do it. This was a 11th hour prayer answered.
We reached our destination and rested all our voices, me still coughing every ten seconds. The debate started...so far so good. Meira spoke...a little screechy as her voice was being pushed out...the opposition's reply speaker came to the floor. I then took the floor to end the whole debate with my rely speech. Its time for the results, the announced that Meira got best speaker. Everyone leaped. The one with no voice won best speaker! it was just too amazing. They then announced the results. SJC had won. Everyone went crazy.
It was not the end. Just because we won this round doesnt mean we qualify to the quarter finals. We had to wait for 3 hours till they announce the top 8 schools. We went for dinner and all. Time went by slowly. It reminded me of collecting my N Level results last year. It was time. they announced our school 4/8 in terms of scores. i think everyone went crazy.
After all the hard stuff, we made it. A really sick team made it. It was a miracle for Meira to get her voice back. Oh and after the debate, she completely lost her voice again..haha.
It was indeed a job well done despite all the unfortunate circumstances! YAY!
"Where's Flora?"(Our 1st Speaker), I asked Ms Naz, Our Coach.
"She didnt come to school today. I called her mum and she said that Flora was sick." The whole room was silent. My voice was half there. I had been sick the whole week. I had an injection for my cough, still didnt work. Our whole team was down. I repeat, THE WHOLE TEAM. I tried practicing my speech, i could barely present half of it, i had too mucch phlegm in my lungs, i was coughing my heart out. I was out of breath.
A few minutes later, Flora comes barging in the room. She starts screaming at Meira to speak. Everyone looks at Flora, shocked. A little misunderstanding, she had a terrible dirroeaha the whole night before. She had her voice, thankfully. An hour passes, meira's voice showed no sign of improvement. She was pumped with medication. The verdict arrived. Meira can't speak. We need to use Rebecca, our reserve speaker. There's nothing we can do. Im thrown to doing third speaker. I have to help rebecca with my 2nd speaker stuff. Its her first time speaking. Flora had to do my summary speech, it was her first time. She had always been a 1st speaker only. Everything was going all wrong. Time passes by painfully. I was told to handle both 2nd and 3rd speaker stuff, incase Meira did get her voice back. Everyone was praying. This was the round to either make or break it.
It's time to leave for the debate. Rebecca was still struggling to digest the issues. The debate was in 2 hours. Everyone was feeling to nervous to do anything. All of a sudden, Meira was trying to speak. We had brought a small mike along. The ones teachers use in class. If by God's grace Meira can speak, the mike would be at her use. Meira could speak a sentence or two. Our coach says there's no point if she can't last for more than a minute. We tried mentally preparing ourselves that we have to go in handicapped and make the best out of it. About 5 minutes after, Meira started pushing her voice out. We tried getting her to practice her rebuttals while on the bus to the debate venue.Alexine timed her. If she could push past 5 minutes, we would have a chance. She managed a 6 minutes presentation. Our hearts nearly leaped out. We got our coach to hear her. If meira had to speak, she had to use the mike despite it looking stupid. She made a decision. She had to do it. This was a 11th hour prayer answered.
We reached our destination and rested all our voices, me still coughing every ten seconds. The debate started...so far so good. Meira spoke...a little screechy as her voice was being pushed out...the opposition's reply speaker came to the floor. I then took the floor to end the whole debate with my rely speech. Its time for the results, the announced that Meira got best speaker. Everyone leaped. The one with no voice won best speaker! it was just too amazing. They then announced the results. SJC had won. Everyone went crazy.
It was not the end. Just because we won this round doesnt mean we qualify to the quarter finals. We had to wait for 3 hours till they announce the top 8 schools. We went for dinner and all. Time went by slowly. It reminded me of collecting my N Level results last year. It was time. they announced our school 4/8 in terms of scores. i think everyone went crazy.
After all the hard stuff, we made it. A really sick team made it. It was a miracle for Meira to get her voice back. Oh and after the debate, she completely lost her voice again..haha.
It was indeed a job well done despite all the unfortunate circumstances! YAY!
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