[Day 42] The Meaning of Life

Speech and debate pretty much consumes my life. Everything is so… empty without it. I love the people, the events, and the overall feeling that comes with it. I am a narcissist, so hearing my own voice is always nice, I am argumentative, which is helpful for debating, and I am dramatic, which is great for my second event, poetry interpretation.

Now, last year, I was terrible at poetry. My performance wasn’t bad, but what I was performing didn’t make much sense until the very end of the season. Instead of finding an actual poem, I clipped together some Cartel lyrics and made dramatic faces. But this year, I am determined to do better. Poetry was more of a way to de-stress after debate rounds last year, but I want to actually get somewhere with it this time.

So yesterday during my first hour release, I clipped together some Yellowcard lyrics from their latest record, Paper Walls. Except this time, instead of randomly picking lyrics that I liked, I actually looked for a coherent storyline that I could make out of them. And interestingly enough, it didn’t turn out half bad. I wrote an introduction for it about food, said that the story was about a breakup, and went with it.

I was concerned, though. It was only my first attempt, and I’m not particularly proficient at cutting pieces. At practice after school, I made sure to preface my cold read to my coach as a poor first attempt. But amazingly enough, she liked it. Not only did she like it, but she said it had a lot of potential, she loved the awkward food introduction, and she agreed whole-heartedly with my early ideas for motions.

Who-duh thunk?

And now, off to watching the Biggest Loser!