By: Tori Lubin ’18

Like a bird ready to pounce on his prey, I’m ready to attack my opponent. My words are my claws, prepared to slice apart any argument made against me. This is debate. This is my passion, a passion that drove to me to join Junior Statesman of America, a formal debating organization. My love for debate is also what drove me go to recently attend my first JSA debate conference, Winter Congress, on Feb. 26th of this year.

Winter Congress is one of the biggest events of the year, where students submit ideas for bills or amendments to the Constitution. These bills are argued and meticulously pulled apart by other students, until they are finally decided on whether they will pass to the next round.

As a sophomore and first year member of the JSA club at Staples, this event was nothing less than daunting. I had never actually debated outside of a school classroom environment, so the idea of putting my debating skills to the test definitely had me feeling nervous.

Saturday morning, it was time to present my bill. I sat in my seat from 9:00 a.m until 3:30 p.m, anxiously waiting to present the bill that I had so continuously rehearsed.

I’m not going to say that my debate went exactly as planned. To be honest, it really didn’t go that well at all and my bill didn’t pass. Despite this, I really enjoyed the experience and the actual act of debating. I believe that people get so caught up in the act of “winning” or reaching a specific goal, that sometimes they lose sight of the fact that they should embrace and celebrate any moment they get to do something they’re passionate about.

When I finally stood up at the podium and faced my audience, the nerves of “getting the bill passed” vanished. That part wasn’t important anymore. When I was standing there, I remembered why I loved debating so much. I remembered how debating made me feel confident and at ease. I remembered why I had signed up to attend this debate in the first place. My arguments were ringing through the air. That is why I went. That is the real point of being on JSA.

While not every risk ends in reward, the overall experience of going to Winter Congress was awesome. Not only did I have a chance to debate, I had the opportunity to speak in front of an audience of students that were just as crazy about debating as I am. That is something that I will definitely look forward to when participating in future JSA events.

I believe that every person should do what they love, even if it scares them, even if it they have no guarantee of achieving whatever their specific “goal” is because every experience is valuable and doing what you feel passionate about will always make you happy.