Dear Debate,
As the timer goes off, l let out a sigh of relief and everyone in the room looks in my direction. I stand up and then approach the makeshift podium. For five straight minutes I read as fast as I can to the judge, trying to get as many arguments in as possible as to why my team should win. When I finish, I return to my seat, and sit down hesitantly. The room is silent, I can hear my heart pounding. I then wait for countless minutes to hear the result. When the moment arrives, the judge announces the winning team: “NFA GR”. I smiled at my partner; we have both just qualified for another tournament. The pressure was off for the moment, as we both walked cheerfully down the hallway alerting our team members. As I walk down the hall I hear a sly comment from my opponent: “I lost to a girl, the only reason she even could have won that round was the judge would have felt sorry for her”. Why is it when a woman is assertive and confident, it is being catty and when a man does this, it is just him being a man? This angered me, for it was not the first time that I heard a comment like this in the debate community. Who's to say that a girl can’t be as good as a boy in any activity?
First off, I would like to express my gratitude to both my coach and parents for the support that they provided from day one of my freshman year through my junior year in college. I want to thank my coach for encouraging me to stick with the activity and always treating me as my own person, never as my brother or just another teammate, and always encouraging me to try something new. I want to thank my parents for putting up with the late night meetings, travel and everything else in between. Debate allowed me to open my mind and see the world like I never had before. This started when I ran cases where feminism was the discussion of the round.
Debate is a predominantly white male activity. It is an activity where women, people of color and anyone else who isn’t a white male is often looked down upon.Gender bias played a major role. After my encounters with sexism, I made it my goal to prove I could be just as good as any male. I put in long hours of practice and research to understand as many new things as I could. As I grew and my skills evolved, the community began to change in a drastic way. We went from discussing politics to discussing real world issues that many debaters in the Northeast lived with. This ranged from feminism, poverty, discrimination and so much more. Debate truly changed in front of my eyes.
Though debate has its issues, as many activities do. I can easily say it is one of the most valuable experiences I had. Debate opened my eyes to an entirely new world. It allowed me to travel and see many states, meet people from my home state of New York, and learn life skills that go far beyond the classroom. I believe that every school district should offer some type of program, even if it’s only competing with local schools. To allow students to explore new topics that range from healthcare to politics to ethical issues allows for a new generation with a more open mind.
Being a part of the debate team has also taught me how to deal with the rough patches in life and how to deal with the everyday battles I may face in my future career as an engineer. Throughout the debate community the ratio of males to females is 14:1 and in some places higher. While the debate community may not be able to solve all of the problems related to gender bias in the world, it has most certainly helped me develop the independence and self-confidence necessary to combat these problems when they leave debate. Female debaters who have graduated agree that the skills they acquired through debate have been valuable in the ''real world.” More women could benefit from these results if they were better integrated in the community at large. Debate has taught me that if people try to put you down, you just have to get back up and show them how strong you are; even if it means putting yourself in a situation that may be strange at first. After participating in competitions for four years and currently judging and coaching younger students, I can say with ease I wouldn’t trade getting up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday for many other things.
