Day Two: i woke up around 5.30 am. and found out that the lights werent working. the room was very dim except for one bulb left lighting us up. no choice left, i really really really wanted to have a shower. so yes, brought in my hp to be the torchlight and.. oh well u got the idea.
now that i got my refreshing shower, my head started spinning the rightway! its D-day! i was told that there will be 4 rounds of debate today. only,, it happened to be 3. alhamdulillah! it wasnt that hard to wake Laila up. i guessed she felt the panick too rising because she was silent the whole morning. but honestly, to be able to be one of the speakers in debate at the age of 14, you should be honoured. i started this year as the 3rd speaker (mainly because there was no body else around) at the age of 16! for me it was very late.. and old. but not to blame anyone, im just not good in it.
so we went downstairs and found no signs of Kimi and Fakhry. and i thought we were late... i didnt manage to munch the burger that was sent to our room last nite around 3 am so basicly, i was starving. and i didnt even bring my gastric liqiud (not that its effective if i didnt eat anything). plus there was this one SRI Ayesha girl who puked out of sudden (maybe because she didnt eat last nite), one having cold and the rest didnt really feel good because they had late dinner last nite. ustaz Zaki handed me a few 50 notes and told me to get them breakfast at the cafeteria. ehhh,... erm.. 1) my communication skills suck when it comes to this part! 2) usually my dad would do the bills after i had breakfast at hotels so how do we pay again?? they were totally counting on me to get them breakfast and do the talking! it was awkward! but to cut things short, ALL of us got to eat without having to pay (initially, only two person per room could get to eat but the kakak let ALL of us in. bear in mind that there were 7 people per room. )
we rushed to the venue of debate and alhamdulillah, it was just about to start. we had to make 3 trips of Avanza to get to the venue (squished and crumpled and cramped up in the car; once in a lifetime experience). i could see the SMIH now, talking or rather discussing with each other. excited, panic, gelabah, call whatever u want. its all in one. like the feeling of having to sit for SPM but you didnt read anything! wanie + Laila = deadmeat; nervous gile! before we knew it, the theme popped up on the screen.
EDUCATION; ROOM 8: SMI al-Amin Bangi VS SMKA Maahad Hamidiah
we were the opposition and Laila will be having her first debate in a tournament! SMI al-Amin Bangi sounded nice too at first. because both of us came from Bangi. we took the lift to the highest level of the building and found an open rooftop with KLCC being the veiw and rooms to be shared! i remembered the first time meeting our opponents, there was this one big guy outshining his other team mates who were girls (kecik kecik aje). but size isnt the one that matters; i knew it long time ago. it the size of ur brain that counts!
by this time, i couldnt care less about all the nervousness because it took a TEAM to get here. and i already have my OWN TEAM; the one i picked, the one i would love to share the shed of tears of either victory or defeat. so the motion; THBT SCHOOL ATTENDENCE SHOULD BE VOLUNTARY. we had our quarantines outside the room looking at the sky whenever we were out of idea. whats odd is that in IIU, the 3o minutes given seemed too short to be true. but here, 30 minutes seemed to be more than enough (for this round). we finished buiding our cases in 15 minutes and as usual, i was quite most of the times because of the blankness. Laila kept switching papers because everytime she wrote down something, the paper would look untidy. Kimi helped by searching for every words of the motion in the dictionary. Fakhry started explaining the learning process in US (he always refer everything in US) while i would ask questions regarding the facts he gave us.
before starting our debate, we were introduced to the judge ( i cant remember the judge's name, sorry) but he was very cute (i meant his personality). he studied psychology in scottland and sounded very experienced. he said that we would all just have to try our best and let go of the nervousness. since were the opp, the gov's 1st speaker stood up and gave her speech. ahhh! how i miss having to hear this! only that now my hands are trembling to write down the rebuttals. LOL. the part that we were all waiting for; Laila's 1st speech! since Fakhry sat down in between and the space wasnt that wide, we didnt get to do the 'salam' thing. but we were all really proud of her for she has swipe away her fear and delivered what she remembered for 4 minutes. the gov's 2nd speaker was next and she too seemed very nervous and i think it must be one of her very 1st speech as well. that just gave Fakhry the opportunity to crush the gov's 1st and 2nd speaker. we said that students under 18 didnt have the right rationalities yet and there is greater factors that can influence their decision (laziness, not having to go with difficulties,etc). it all sounded well until the 3rd speaker of the gov's team stood up (yep the big guy). for once, i didnt like his tone and he spoke as if we were having a fight instead of a nice peace and harmony debate. bleghh. and when it came to my part, my hands were as cold as the ice. this is the moment; just face it and let bygones be bygones. LOL. with shaking voice, i continued the rationalities part and tried to sync the speech in any way i could. it was, just like in the IIU if i could still remember, making the same mistakes and not delivering it the right way. i was just relieved that i could finish up my 7 minutes speech but it felt awful for the rest. overall, we were partly influenced by the gov's way of debating; misleading us.
the outcome was even more surprising. we WON by a margin of 12! whats even more outrageous is that there is a tie for the best speaker; between me and Fakhry. ha ha ha ha ha ha. that part was unbelievable i almost wanted to point out my veiw to the judge saying that this guy beside me taught me practicallY EVERYTHING in debate. how could it be a tie? but in the end, the title went to Fakhry because the judge said that i looked nervous and his speech was more synchronized than mine. it didnt bother me at all instead it felt as if the right thing was done. the judge also gave us a piece of advice for each person; Laila needs to practice speaking more and overcome her nervousness. Fakhry needs to stop smiling for no reason during his speech and should be a bit more serious. LOL (if the judge knows how serious he is...) and i shouldnt rush into things and be more calm in delivering my point of veiws. the judge gave us a new spirit of debate, the one that we thought we lost during IIU. debate is teamwork, fun, generates funny ideas from ur brain with lots of embarrassing moments!
after the judge left us, we shake our hands with the gov team and i couldnt stop hugging and jumping with Laila in front of them. the gov must be pissed at how childish i was at that time. Fakhry even have to warn me not to melompat2 in front of others (there were teachers of SMI al-amin Bangi too.) but for me, the feeling of winning here is VERY DIFFERENT than winning in IIU (mind u, i didnt melompat2 when we won in IIU). it felt as if the whole team took part in the debate even thought Kimi didnt talk. it felt like each and every one of us should just smile crazily towards each other and say nothing but Alhamdulillah. it felt that we did our best for the sake of the team even though we did craps. it did not feel like winning, it felt like EVERYTHING ELSE except for winning. LOL.
at the main hall, Athirah suddenly poked me and said "a margin of 12?!" i didnt noe the margin was so big at that time and i thought she was lying. ha ha ha. the four of us then gathered around to have some recaps of the previous debate. we always take note of what the judge commented and improve on something. we promised each other that winning is not the key, its just trying our best. we came here to learn something, not to win. Kimi was thrilled for the next debate as we assumed that we will be the gov next. before we knew it, Kimi and Fakhry had to go for their Solat Jumaat while me and Laila went to the hotel's surau to perfom our Zohor prayers. we asked the guys to get us some food because we were so lazy to get out of the hotel's surau (it was very comfy and cold) and ended up troubling Fakhry to show us the cafeteria at the hospital ( i thought the cafeteria was in the hotel) cuz we were too embarrassed to eat the food at the main venue. Laila picked first (kuay teow) and i had to eat the chicken chop left. the thing is, the chicken was oily and since the eating is kinda late and my stomach already poured out lots of gastric juice, i was sure to vomit afterwards if i resume eating it. chicken chop later, Laila's kuay teow it is. LOL
with sleepy eyes and full stomach, i am ready for the next round of debate.
to be continued...
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