maliemania!: a day to remember

Team Sri Ayesha HELP 2013

My mum finally allowed me to enter my first(and last) debate tournament this year.

I have to say, my teammates and i didn't have high expectations at all, because we've hardly trained enough and i haven't been in a tournament for a year(and haven't trained for 8 months). Our only aim was to win 1 or 2 rounds, so we were quite chillin' about everything. It was such a miracle to win all three preliminary rounds, even though the wins were close ones. At that point, it meant we were qualified to break into the Octo Finals. What was even more surprising was that we broke FOURTH. Dude that is like my highest breaking in a competition(except for Musleh). Maybe the competition wasn't very high because there weren't very many teams competing, but still. Sri Ayesha has never gone into breaking rounds for HELP, and we've been going for nearly 4 years now. To straightaway break 4th was awesome.

We lost the Octo Finals at a 2-1 split with the chair dissenting. When they announced it, my teammates and i cheered and smiled. Of course, there was that slight disappointment of not winning, but after all the miraculous things that had happened, we didn't care. We were thankful enough to be Octo Finalists :D

It was a day to remember, because of the many useful lessons we learnt. I personally learnt that having low expectations and just being all chillin' about something while doing your best can actually be applied in my life. It makes me happier, no matter what the outcome. I've experienced major disappointments in myself for far too many times that i just didn't want that to happen again. Now i finally found the way to willingly accept whatever happens and just be thankful, alhamdulillah.

I'm very proud of my teammates. Maryam and Eri have been debating all year but they never got to break in any competition. I could see how passionate and hardworking they were after those tournaments, because in this one they were the best i've ever seen them at. In the debate about Snowden, THEY were the ones filling me in with what was happening, and Maryam replaced me as the reply speaker. In one round, Maryam was even better than me! I still remember the day i first taught her how to debate, at that time she had to use a script because it was her first competition and she didn't have any training at all. Look at her now.

I watched Eri grow up since he was Year 5, and i'm amazed at how confident and passionate he is. They both have a lot of potential to offer, and i know they're going to do great next year.

We met Hafiz, whose team broke second in the competition. I was so, so happy for him. Even though we're in different schools now, but i was there to see him improve as a debater from the very start of his debating career. He's probably a lot better than me now, and i am very proud of him.

Like in every other competition, making new friends and meeting old ones was always one of my favourite parts about debating. I'm still astonished about how friendly and outgoing debaters are, and how easy it is to straightaway connect with them with conversations. They're an amazing bunch, and i'll always admire them for it.

Thank you to everyone who made this day amazing :)

I am officially a retired high school debater.

And i regret nothing.