They don't frankly tell this to me but i feel that a lot of people find me approachable because i'm in nature a choleric one. I am very argumentative and i admit that. But I only argue if there is something to be argued. Maybe, sometimes I am just so reactive that some people find me not so friendly. One time my friend told me, since you're interested in current events and you love sharing your point of view why not join the college debate team? I was surprise with her utterance because she seemed to tell me that debate is just like a piece of cake. I have no experience in debate. Maybe in public speaking I have but not debate where in you weigh things to make to the people clear which is which. In public speaking I had in high school, i prepare my speech so when i do speak to the people i know exactly what to say and why do i speak to them. Debate is a different thing. It depends on what type of debate but in our school Asian Parliamentary Debate is the most commonly used in competitions. I only see informal debates in TV just like in Y Speak when it was still in ABS-CBN and HARAPAN when there are important issues in the government like divorce and RH Bill but i don't see myself speaking in that situation.
Since I had my first step in college, I already turned back from what i usually do in high school. Out of town quiz shows, writing contests, camps, mathematics olympics and seminars and studying every night has been out of my system. Maybe it is because i get so tired already. Since my preschool I've been active in school. I devoted all my life and time in school. I enjoyed it but I want to be something different in college. Someone like an ordinary student. Someone not known to the campus for her achievements in academe. Someone teachers will not use to call during classes ours. I want to be an average ordinary student but not to the pint that I will let myself have failing grade in college. If that happens, my schoolmates, teachers, and family will be disappointed with me.
In line with the 50th founding anniversary of our university different agencies conducted activities such as annual dance and music extravaganza and literary festival.During the screening for debaters in our college, I was supposed to audition in the musical though I don't have a very good voice but my very good friend pull me inside the first room to audition for the debate team. I'm really in doubt to join. Aside from I don't have experience and I do not have a very good command in English, there were lots of people watching us. Around 20 something joined the screening. The applicants were chosen randomly to introduce their selves and I was astonished with the first year students. They were there, outnumbering the fourth years. I have seen the very beautiful daughter of our university president. I've witnessed her speaking before, during her campaign in the student council. She's really good. I was really thinking, this mighty freshmen are better than me should i still pursue this? The screening was done through an extemporaneous speaking. Students were give topics and 15 seconds to organize their speech. I was never wrong, the freshmen were really good so really pitied myself that time. I somehow wonder why didn't i get interest in practicing debate in high school even though it is not held in our school. All I've was just to take a deep breath and sigh. Not everyone was magnificent in their speech but I'm still not confident. I have ideas in some of the questions thrown and I really want to answer them myself but the question was not for me so I can do nothing but to remain still in my seat. I was the last one being called. I don't if I must be relieved or not that time. The good thing were, nobody will hear me speaking aside form my friends because most of the students already went home but the sad thing is there were no good motion left and I'm already tired waiting. My time has come and the motion was... "Social networks poses more good than bad"... i can no longer remember if i was given the chance to choose between affirmative and opposition side. What i can only remember I'm in favor of social networks so i just lean on the motion. I'm speaking over and over again. I was so tensed and I can't explain the feeling. I was trying to persuade the panel but I'm not so satisfied with my speech.Since it was an extemporaneous speaking and I do not have enough time to prepare, my speech was more on opinionated than factual. I gave facebook as an example of a social network and I said that Mark Zuckerburg as I have in the video movie "The Social Network" never aim anything bad when he initiated doing the network. All he wanted was to make a social media which have the features of friendster and myspace. He didn't even imagine to make it for money. The social network is for communication and to make people happy and live a more comfortable life. It will only cause bad things if it is used in the wrong way. The facebook has privacy settings, it only allows those who are at proper age to use the it. The people are given discretion, the parents have the responsibility for their children's welfare and anything bad may happen are predictable and can be avoided such as pornography and deception. I really had hard time organizing my thought in my speech. With ten seconds prep time, outlining is never even enough. I can no longer remember exactly how i ended my speech. All can remember is that I was only baffled the next when saw the posts in the Impulse bulletin that i ranked three in the screening process and that I'm already an official IMPULSE member. Impulse is the debating team in our college. I was so happy and from that day on, I kept on reading more articles, news and current events. I practice when their's an opportunity so when the day of the competition came I may not be as prepared as our opponents who were great debaters since high school but at least I've done my preparation with all my heart and I offer every round to God.
These were the pictures we had during the Golden Cup!
these we my co-Impulse debaters during the 2011 Intercollegiate Parliamentary Debate Championship. The college sent five teams, team A to team E. The power team was in team A and I belonged to team B. Actually , i was originally in team A but after our mock debate with mom Ashley's daughter and the conflict in schedules of other debater I was transferred to team B. When I was assigned at team A, I was overwhelmed but I get so nervous. They were all experienced and confident and I felt that I wouldn't be able to express my opinions openly so when I was transferred to team B, I was relieved. Though we were not able to practice together as a team and we do not know how are mind work and coincide, we accept the offer to be in team B and then Team B seemed to be a home to me :)
in this picture were the great debaters from CHS together with some of the adjudicators. from the back starting from the left was ryan diamla, regie erojo (man2), te shaima masiding, jonah, (front, left) rem2, emma,noha,shaima linog, me!!!, fritz, te carmelle, shariah, chuckie and at the center it's leigh.
in this photo lenie stood at the back.
in this photo honey lorie was added. she's at the center holding the pink bag.
these are the member of ROSTRUM, MSU Debate Varsity. They were the representatives of the university in the interschool debate competition. I was sad that it was already late, I'm already in fourth year when I realized that I wanted to be one of their members. That I want to go to other place in the Philippines and the world to share my thoughts, and facts. They were really good speakers and admire each them so much. Some say, members of rostrum are self-coceited and proud but i don't care. What I only want is to hone up my passion in debate and in speaking. Despite that negative feedback about them, i still wanted to be with them if given a chance. I know that even they are proud, there is still something good in their heart that opens to the novice debaters like me.
this is ate mia if i'm not mistaken. the one who speak while we are preparing for the final round. they say she's really inspirational. i was dim i did't witnessed her speech.
here we are after the first day of debate. happy together. i'm really happy because we won the three rounds straight and we've chance for the octo-finals. this was take outside the CSSH lobby. The conference are was in IPDM but it was close already so we get settled outside CSSH together with other participants.
me with my wonderful team B. my beloved team. my ever cherished teammates. we had hope we'll be qualifies for octo-finals but we didn't expect ours will be the only team to qualify. In this photo from left is me, the deputy prime minister, (center) ashley, the whip, (right) lenie, our superb prime minister.
there. spot him if you. my crush was in their,, hehe,,,am so inspired. he came from the college of education. he's position was a whip. he was the best speaker in our round but we won the round.. haha... the round that i didn't expect to be given to us. the motion was "THBT animal welfare groups should only have vegetarians as members". It was so funny we're on the affirmative side. What entered my mind first was "bakit vegetarian lang? cla lang ba ang may kakayahan mag care sa animals?". Another funny thing was the opposition think the same way with me. I'm just glad we were able to find ways to make the motion lean on us. The opposition were really good speakers. I was really in BIG doubt that time if we will win the round. The adjudicator compliment him (my crush.LOL) for being a very good speaker. The exact words I remember the adjudicator said was "you're really a great speaker, you speech was almost flawless however i give this round to the government side" then after that, I see my whole world shining.
with accountancy and business administration debaters. they were all marvelous
the judgement time. announcement of the top 16 teams out of 39 to be qualified for octo-finals the next day. we didn't won the fourth but were so glad we were qualified and during that time it's the only thing that matters.
team B for the WIN!!
this was the round with the engineering power team. the last years champion. we were opponents for the octo-finals. they speaking so strong, very strong conviction and very strong and loud voice. i'm not threatened to loose the round because they have facts and very impressive arguments but i'm afraid of them because they cannot control their impulse. maybe i was just so blessed at that time that i really felt so confident. i was able to catch with the flaws of the primes. in this photo, lenie and i were discussing about our arguments.
this was the prime minister of the opposition side. he's my neighbor and sometimes when we eat at the canteen, he's also eating there. but we're not that close. he's speaks fluently.
i don't who's that other guy but the girl at the left was cristine gotostos. she was my classmate in Filipino when i was in first year. she's really a good debater but i was a little sad, seems like she's so serious with the debate that she forgot i'm her classmate before.
thinking critically
lenie and ash never let me down.
me and jonah, one of the best adj.
qualifiers for quarter finals. kalaban ko pa talaga si chap omar dito. at iyong deputy nila, classmate ni lenie sa high school, toinksss talaga!
this was the motion at the championship round. government leaning right? read it carefully, it is related to medical ethics. if you were able to watch the movie "Sisters Keeper" you will appreciate this motion. glad we are in the government side and that we know a lot about medical ethics and bioethics since we're taking up nursing. but honestly, it was hard for me to say something medically related to the people because of finding a layman's term that would equate the medical term that i know.
these are the qualifiers for championship round. the girls are from nursing and the boys are from HRM. actually, i can't really contest if they are straight boys...haha. but they were really friendly and humble people. at the end of the day, we became friends.
with kuya paw.for once he became our trainer and we greatly learned a lot from him. i myself was enlightened by him. thank kya paw.. sana straight ka. super crush pa naman kita.. hehe..super smart mo talaga parang si shieldon sa big bang theory..xooxo
happy and successful !!
with kuya dave rosima(crush ko din. di niya alam) and mam bulaklak
with my chap rhea... pinaka star para sa akin.. super great debater talaga.. go CHAP!!love you much..
the CHAMPIONS!!
with honey lorie my love,,.
with jonah, sweet girl and lenie
oie kilig! hah
with sir ashraff (crush ng marami, super smart peri di ko crush. ewan ko bakit), and mam theresa namalata (sexy and fashionista, super Christ-centered)
of course... dapat my victory party!!!! see the carbonara??? it was given by no other than Mam Lunag, the very witty and amusing, the very humble and kind,. thanks din mam.. muah
simot na simot talaga. tagal kasi na inorder namin eh,,
kainan sa JECO's :)
Thnks to jonah for the pictures. I won't any tangible memory to keep if she wasn't there.
I was overwhelmed with the result of the IPDC 2011 but before I put my last period in this blog I will share this to you. We were only defeated once in the entire competition. That was the fourth round before being qualified to octo-finals. The round between the accountancy and us. The round when we were holding so much fact. The round where most expect to win. The round where we forgot to pray before brainstorming and writing our argument.
The three of us came from different religious background. Ashley is an Islam, Lenie is Protestant and I am a Roman Catholic. We all believe that there is GOD.In every round we have, we always have a silent prayer while holding our hands together. We always do that even before pointing the pen in our papers and notebooks. But during our round with the accountancy we forgot to pray. We only prayed in the middle of our preparation.
That time, I really felt that God is with us. We were not asking for anything in excess, we're only asking for wisdom and guidance. In our fourth round maybe we are so overwhelmed with the straight wins we had.
I've come to realize, in life there will always be ups and downs. But whenever we're on top or at the bottom we must never forget to be grateful to our creator and to always hold unto. In our happy moments, that's when the the the negative energy becomes opportunistic but when you offer those happy moments with, you'll never be lead astray. In one way or another, I can say that this victory was a gift from God and without him we will not be able paint another history in our college. That IPDC championship title after a six long years. That championship happened during the Golden Jubilee and that championship gave us way to get the OVER-ALL CHAMPION title in the Literary Competition. Our college has something to be proud of. That is why i'm proud to share this experience with you too.. till next time :) muah....#
