The Beauty of Debating

Berita BPK PENABUR Jakarta - 29 October 2021

       I had never expected my love for the English Language to turn out this way, but they say that you can never predict the future, and I finally fully understood what they meant. 

      It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and I was reading a book more quietly than I used to. Usually, I would say short phrases or make comments about the book, but my room was dead silent that day. Suddenly, I received a text from one of my friends, and I could tell she was texting me more frantically than she has ever been. She asked me to join a debate competition with her, and my head immediately told me to reject the offer. Fortunately, I paused before sending her that message. Otherwise, the story would have ended differently. I thought about the text again and how it would be a really good experience since I was going to dive into a world that was still considered as the unknown to me. Therefore, I said ‘yes’ to the offer.

       In my head, I was convinced I would debate the worst amongst our team. At this point, we had already grouped as a group of three and we were officially in the debate competition. We practiced throughout the day and night because we knew we needed to practice or else we had no chance. This team worked the most efficiently out of every group I have been in. I was in a few group competitions before, but nothing comes close to the dynamic that the three of us have. As the time passes by, we were speaking more confidently than before, and we were so proud of ourselves for that.

        Our first match was on a Thursday. I was confident hours before the match started but once I was in the zoom call, I felt like my heart was going to leap out of my body. The coordinators gave us our motion and the moment they allowed us to discuss, we immediately went to work and started listing out all our possible arguments and strong points that we could bring up during the debate. I was, and still am our opening speaker. I waited the most patiently to hear the pro team finish their opening statement, in fact, I was hoping they wouldn’t stop so I didn’t have to talk at all. But we’re here right now and it's too late to back out. I just needed to do it like how I usually do it, that’s what I kept repeating to myself in my head.

       Despite how nervous we all were, we delivered our points really well and we even made it to the semifinal round. We had to do our practice more quickly than usual since the semifinal was held immediately after our round. Our opponent was a tough one to crack and they reminded me of us in a certain way. The last thing I wanted was to encounter a team that was so similar to us and of course, that scenario ended up happening. I wasn’t confident, at all. But good news arrived, and we ended up winning the semifinal, too. We became more confident. We practice harder. Finally, we went to the final and we won the competition.

       One of my teachers always told my class that hard work never betrays the results. He’s right because I experienced it firsthand. 

by: Chelsea Cecillia Cang (SMPK 6 PENABUR)

edited: Andreas Aris Ardianto

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