Top three signs of exhaustion: Run down on each of them and you'll realize exactly what I've been up to for the past 10 days.
1. My eye bags threaten to close almost every waking moment. Just today, it gave up at around 12nn. I had to sleep an extra 5 hours until I went to mass. Four hours of sleep, three rounds a day, and strictly three meals are just clearly not student friendly.
2. I'm suffering from severe back pains. In the 4 nights in Eagle Star, I was officially on the floor, every single time. (apparently, it just doesn't improve). Also, I lugged around four matter folders across ateneo every day.
3. I've officially lost my voice. It's the product of four hours of sleep per night and debating two rounds in SecLecB filled with a xavier audience of 100. Hangin lang lumalabas sa throat ko... even as of right now.
Yup... no questions asked. My life has revolved around matter briefs, cameras, running in the rain, triking in katips, and climbing umpteen flights of stairs to get to the mvp roofdeck... in heels. It's none other than PSDC - the Philippine Schools Debating Championships.
But in fairness, all the above exhaustion symptoms (which I'm surprised because I'm not sick yet) are WORTH IT. PSDC is exhausting - physically, mentally, and emotionally. But, it's the best national tournament I've ever had.
THE ROUNDS (how much time did the WR team spend training for PSDC? Four days. Of matter loading, and continuous rounds. The motions this year were not only extreme in length (super super super long!!), but pretty tricky. Here's the narration of Pam and Gaba's rounds)
Round 1 - Abolishing the presidential right to pardon. I knew this would eventually come out, but I refused to print anything on this. Luckily, Gaba had this. Funny thing in this round, our OG got lost (went to the wrong room, and slowed down the entire tourney sched by half an hour), which made Leloy reaaally mad, complete with sermon. Won this round.
Round 2 - EU and Iran (I could swear, this was not a prelim level motion). Gaba and I were super scared this time around, because we were in a room with ICA A, XS A, and PLC A, with the same adj. Miraculously, we got SECOND. I still can't explain exactly how it happened.
Round 3 - Carbon tax. We completely freaked out, because we had this motion in the list of motions during training, but we always refused to debate it. Worse, we were Opening GOV. (note Gaba and I have history of bad prepping) But, we happened to get SECOND, again. Turns out the opp clash was wrong.
Round 4 - Slavery in Africa. We got third in this round. Not much commentary here.
Round 5 - China and the Olympics. We were adjed by Faith, who had been disappointed with our performance during Nash dc. But this time, we kicked ass. I loved my speech this round.
Round 6 - Philippine Media. WE LOST. But funny bit of it, it was raining reaaally hard when the motion was released. It was either we went downstairs and back up to get to the building, or run in the rain. We chose the latter. Prep time is just too valuable, apparently.
Round 7 - Catholic Adoption Agencies. The miracle round. We prepped for the WRONG SIDE. We were opening opp pa naman, so when Jaime was delivering his speech, it was the only time I realized we prepped wrongly. I went into the podium with almost nothing. After a very bad round, I cried the minute I stepped out of the room. I was already swearing that we would get fourth this round, and thus not break.
I was prolly the most disagreeable person during the break night party. I couldn't even eat. I clung to Margie and Bets during the announcement of the break. Yun pala... we got SECOND in our last round. WR A broke 17th with 13 points.
JUST TO TIE IT ALL UP... WHAT I WILL MISS ABOUT PSDC...
1. Dressing DOWN for Opening Dinner - because of what happened last year, our entire team swore that we wouldn't go as bongga for this year's opening dinner. We followed theme pa rin, but we were generally in tops and pants lang. When we went inside, we realized (for the first time in WR debate history) we were UNDERDRESSED.
2. Skirt day - the ever famous WR national tournament tradition. I've done this six times, and I'm going to really miss picking out a skirt, and annoying everyone else to bring one too.
3. Walking through puddles in heels - Gaba and I make a very superstitious team. We seriously believed that each time we got wet whenever we walked to prep time, we would do well in the round. It backfired eventually, because the round that it rained and we ran in the rain, we lost. But still, we called it "baptism by water".
4. Eating out - McDo, Old Spaghetti House, and that other restaurant we happened to eat in. It's to compensate for all the energy we left out.
5. Squishing six people in a single room - trust me, this was very very difficult. It was because the aircon in the living room broke during the first night. So eventually, people sleeping in the living room moved to our room. Very, very, very squishy, but fun.
6. Not having to commute very much - we commuted a round total of TWO times only. On this point, we would like to thank Mang Jun and the WR van, as well as Mrs. Senson. Royal treatment I SWEAR, we barely walked or triked.
7. Waking up at 530am to go to mass - yeahp, we're a pretty prayerful team. All of us attended mass each of the three days. Trust me, it works. Most of the time, Gaba and I have to credit God for the rounds why we couldn't really understand how we placed in the top half.
8. Jamming - WR and SR teams aren't just debaters, we actually have the potential to become a band. Just kidding. We spent the night of the championship dinner (after that) in Eagle Star, singing along to Job, Concep, Nicolo and Sluggo's playing. Joseph's solo career shall launch soon. :D This went on until around 3am. Since we couldn't do eastwood this year, this one would have to do.
9. The seven minute speech song - music by Nicolo and Sluggo, lyrics by Nico Concep. I can't exactly disclose what this was really about, but it was THE BEST.
10. SR's condo condition - believe it or not, there was no furniture at all. It was a puddle of sleeping bags and matter folders. They tried to make us clean it, sorry, didn't work.
11. Sebastian's Ice Cream - we apparently lived near one of those shops. One time, we shared a pint at around 10pm, and just died.
12. Dressing UP for championship dinner - this time, we made bawi. We made ourselves up, wore cocktail dresses (side note: the juniors were actually confused at one point. They thought "Ejay's" was a designer. Just because, the seniors kept asking this: What dress are you wearing? I think I'll wear Ejay's. In truth, it means - I'm wearing the same one I wore to Ejay's.)
13. Maltesers - two bags in less than an hour. We're all addicts na daw.
14. Reunion - Bets, Mica, Margie, and Giovs! Well, they were all ADS, but it was super great to see them again. :)
15. The mystery of Nicky's stomach - seriously. We would all want to wonder, when does he ever get full? He consumed half the bowl of rice during championship dinner, and still insisted on going to McDo for a big mac because the dinner wasn't really "dinner" daw. The next day, breakfast consists of three sausage mcmuffins. (or as he defends himself, two mcmuffins and one sausage patty lang).
16. Poon singing during the championship dinner - Gaba, you are brilliant. I swear. He actually learned the alto part of stand by me in a matter of minutes.
17. Gaba's random song outbursts - Crap. I can attest to this the most, she does this all the time. all the time. all the time.
18. Hansky and the cookie obession - Hansky, like the rest of us, fell very quickly into the trap of Lexy's cookies. Just like Miko's cookie cake, they should be banned for being too good. You just can't get enough of it.
19. The unnamed crab (names are still available) - Thank you to Raffy for giving me the crab. Which at first, people thought was another animal but a crab - hello, small hands, orange, round, with big eyes!! It's the stress ball, so I'm surprised it didn't break from all the times we squished it when waiting for results.
20. Gaba breaking the curtain rod - sabi daw, it just fell when she touched it. Refer to the album, we have the pics to prove it.
21. The impersonations of the androgenous parental unit - the people who did this were extremely good... sounded almost real. But of course, it's so easy to identify. Job was panalo at this. Who exactly is this androgenous one... is that even how you spell?
22. The Pam impersonations - This I had to defend myself at certain points. But you have to admit, they were all true. I hate them for that, but yeah.
23. Camwhorring - God, we are just too BAD. 297 pics in four days. Camon. Plus, these guys love to steal my cam and return it with more pictures. Worse, they even did that to RJ's camera. We took it home for an entire night. The next day, it was whored.
24. Being able to miss school for two extra days (monday and tuesday) to train - This was good, because my philosophy was that knowing exam results would affect the debating. This was kind of funny at some points, because whenever I went to mass people would ask me why I wasn't at Ateneo yet.
25. The results. They were RECORD BREAKING.
WR A - broke 17th, reached the quarters, 9th and 15th best speakers of the tournament.
WR B- broke 7th (highest breaking WR team for this year), reached the quarters.
WR C - broke 20th, reached semis (first WR team EVER to reach semis)
WR D - broke 25th, reached octso (first fourth WR team to break)
Gaba won public speaking.
26. MY KIDDIES - I know I refer collectively to them as my kids (even if they're my batchmates, or older than me). But I will reaaally reaaally miss them, knowing that there is no next PSDC. BUBBLE! It's a different bubble from last year, but a bubble all the same. I love you guys, so so so much. *** I'm going to write a separate entry for this, I know it's sucky.
THE MESSAGES SECTION
1. Dani and Mikki - apparently, they coined all ten of us as their love children. (Okaaayy...) Thank you so much for training us, and bombarding us with matter. Despite the fact that it got really hard, and we really sucked at times, thank you for being patient with us.
2. Margie, Mica, Bets, and Giovs - thanks for taking the time off to help out and train us. Also, thanks for organizing the tournament, and for keeping us sane throughout. (Margie and Bets so knew who were going to break... they made me soooo scared!)
3. Job and the rest of the SR contingent - Get a job as a psychiatrist, and I swear I will hire you. Thank you so much for keeping me sane before the break. It felt really bad for me to break (being the one consoled) and that you and James didn't (being the one doing the consoling). But, it still holds true - one tournament doesn't change the fact that you're a REALLY good debater. The same also goes to the entire SR team, we know that you guys are amazing. With your super bootcamp-y training to go with that. :)
4. Michael and Leandro - I really think it should be credited here talaga, for admitting to the tabbing mistake. Background: they were the 32nd breaking team, but they realized that one of their points didn't count because Michael was part of a swing team during round 1. They admitted this to the adj core, super honest. You guys may not have debated, but everyone really values that honesty.
5. Erin and Kat - Prelims were extremely rough, but you guys made SEMIS. Super unbelievable!! :D New friends, hahahaha :))
6. WR B - Pat and Chrissa, you guys were amazing. Breaking 7th :D I really have to give props to you guys, since I knew that in the tryout ranks, you guys were team A (just that, Gaba hated the letter B. We just had to steal the letter.)
7. WR C - Abby and Pola. The rounds before the silent rounds were pretty rough for you guys, but see? Super pulled it off, and you guys advanced to the semis! Even with the uber hard motion, you guys did fine. (Abby - since philip here is a man, he refuses to look at the feminist side of the issue. At this, peterson goes "shame!" right after the part about philip being a man)
8. WR D - Sam and Mica. Here comes the "I told you so!" I knew talaga that you guys were going to make it. Even at a SOM room at round7, you guys made it :D
9. WR E - Lexy and Mon. I know that it was pretty hard not breaking, but I have to reassure you that you guys still did really really well. And, thanks for all the love and support the next day at break. :D (To the next record breakers, you have to get a WR team CAPPED. That's pretty hard.)
10. Gaba - I have to admit, I was really surprised when I found out that you were going to be my partner during PSDC. We've had a history of bad prep (included a fight over a set up in nash round 6), and we both had open wounds coming into this tournament. But, we eventually pulled it off, one round at a time. Thank you so much for being a really great partner, it was more than I could ask for. You carried me during some rounds in the prelims, especially when I had my latter round attitude problems. And this time, it really came through for you. I knew that the 9th best speaker would be you. And you know now, you never dragged me down dear, you were brilliant. For all the stepping on puddles, nine choirs of angels praying, and the like, I'm glad I debated with you. :D I'll miss that soo much. Thanks for sharing the crying moments as well as the happy ones.
SO AT THE END OF THE DAY...
What makes a great tournament? It's not just great results, althought this tournament did have brilliant ones. It's a mix of it all. WR Debate Culture is not just about debating. It's down to the nitty grittys - the debating, the dress up, the bonding, the late night jamming, and everything else. I'm proud to say that I was part of this debate family. I know I won't have a team like you guys.
I had already forgotten how it was to break. I spent nine days novena-ing for this tournament, complete with mass and holy hour. Margie was right, breaking this year felt like the sweetest thing. And Mikki was right as well, it was all WORTH IT. The pains of the nash non break, and all the frustrations throughout the year boiled down to this. I didn't think I was going to feel that. But we did. And three other teams did.
And now? Despite the exhaustion, the only daunting thing is this - I'm getting overwhelmed by the reality of NORMAL LIFE. Oh no. I've been on debate zone from November 2-11. That's ten days. One day, I'm convincing people that political pardon should be eradicated, running in the rain in Ateneo, and shouting my speech in SecLec with a predominant xavier audience, just so the adjes can hear me. And the next day? I'm dragging that same matter bag, just with senior text books, and listening to philo lectures.
*** There's a part two to this. I'll post it tomorrow ***
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