There are a lot of things to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, my home, my life, my school, my country, my pets, and on and on. Most of all, I am thankful for my friends. My friends are the ones who genuinely care about me, who can make me laugh with their crazy shenanigans, and who can make me smile no matter what. My friends are my family, and I would not know what to do without them.
So, let's make every day Thanksgiving, and think about all of the wonderful things in your life that you're grateful for. And most of all, don't forget to be thankful for the little things!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47D9-U8hn5I
Lots of love,
Sierra
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
CRUSHing
Why hello there.
Hmm... so it looks like this is my second post on crushing within two months! Wow! And surprise, this time I'm talking about a completely different type of crushing. What other type of crushing can there be other than midgets in a high velocity car and the falling head over heels for a person, you may ask? Well, this particular form of crushing I shall be addressing today has to do with band crushing.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Band%20Crush&defid=4184538
The funniest thing about this particular bout of band crushing is the band itself. Any guesses to what the name is?
Crush. The band's name is Crush. So, my dear friend Julie and I have spent the past week "band crushing" on the band Crush. Ironic, huh?
Let me tell you about this band. First of all, their music is absolutely fabulous. It's a little more dub step-y-esque than I usually listen to, but I'm totally in love with it. I have to confess, I've probably listened to their CD about 20 times within the past 3 days. Scary, right?
Anyways, besides the amazing quality of their music, this band happens to be local (yay!) and the band members are all really nice! I mean, it's one thing to have a great band, but it's even better when the people in the band are fantastic and great personalities.
This is the case with Crush. Great music, firm handshakes, great personalities, and oh, how could I forget?? They have girls tshirts! Sure, sure, that sounds pretty dorky, but you have no idea how many local bands only have guy tshirts. It's frustrating. And not only do they have girl's tshirts, but the tshirts have woolly mammoths on them! Ahh!
To sum this pretty random post up (let's face it, it's 9:50 (doin' double parentheses style... yeah.. anyways, I realize 9:50 is really pathetic, I do. I typically would stay up to like 1 if it was an option, but high school just does not allow for that), I'm sleep deprived, listening to music, and should probably be studying for that Odyssey quiz tomorrow... it's hard to focus on blogging.) this is what my past few days have looked like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNRVazAVVdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03vSYR0Eqkw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRHzgciHtxg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFmZaGkpP4I
Hmm... so it looks like this is my second post on crushing within two months! Wow! And surprise, this time I'm talking about a completely different type of crushing. What other type of crushing can there be other than midgets in a high velocity car and the falling head over heels for a person, you may ask? Well, this particular form of crushing I shall be addressing today has to do with band crushing.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Band%20Crush&defid=4184538
The funniest thing about this particular bout of band crushing is the band itself. Any guesses to what the name is?
Crush. The band's name is Crush. So, my dear friend Julie and I have spent the past week "band crushing" on the band Crush. Ironic, huh?
Let me tell you about this band. First of all, their music is absolutely fabulous. It's a little more dub step-y-esque than I usually listen to, but I'm totally in love with it. I have to confess, I've probably listened to their CD about 20 times within the past 3 days. Scary, right?
Anyways, besides the amazing quality of their music, this band happens to be local (yay!) and the band members are all really nice! I mean, it's one thing to have a great band, but it's even better when the people in the band are fantastic and great personalities.
This is the case with Crush. Great music, firm handshakes, great personalities, and oh, how could I forget?? They have girls tshirts! Sure, sure, that sounds pretty dorky, but you have no idea how many local bands only have guy tshirts. It's frustrating. And not only do they have girl's tshirts, but the tshirts have woolly mammoths on them! Ahh!
To sum this pretty random post up (let's face it, it's 9:50 (doin' double parentheses style... yeah.. anyways, I realize 9:50 is really pathetic, I do. I typically would stay up to like 1 if it was an option, but high school just does not allow for that), I'm sleep deprived, listening to music, and should probably be studying for that Odyssey quiz tomorrow... it's hard to focus on blogging.) this is what my past few days have looked like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNRVazAVVdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03vSYR0Eqkw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRHzgciHtxg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFmZaGkpP4I
Saturday, November 5, 2011
My (not so secret) Undying Love
Urban Outfitters. I love you. So, so much.
Hey guys! So I've been online store browsing for the past two hours or so, mostly obsessively clicking all over urbanoutfitters.com, skimming through all of their amazing clothing. Seriously- they have some cute stuff. However, they also have some EXPENSIVE stuff! Ah! So here I am, sitting on my bed, thinking quietly to myself, "If I had 70 bucks, I would so buy a pair of pleather pants..."
Oh well.
Let me talk to you about fashion.
Quiet frankly, I don't understand it. It changes too fast, and is too particular. At the same time, I kind of love it. I don't consider myself to be very fashionable, but I do like finding legit pieces of clothing that just look cool and feel totally comfortable. That brings me to another thing- I really really really don't like shopping for clothes. It takes too long, the right size is all too often impossible to find, and it is EXTREMELY difficult to find exactly what you want. For example, I went shopping for a blouse the other day. That's all I wanted, just a one color, simple fit, no pattern blouse. But noooo, everything has to have ruffles or plaits or shiny buttons or something! What happened to simplicity? Ugh.
Overall, I think what matters most in fashion is comfort and originality. Don't dress like your best friend just because she's the most popular in school, don't wear heels if they're uncomfortable (which in my honest opinion, they are) and don't feel the need to force yourself into tight-fitting, skimpy clothing. Have polite conversations with your parents, so that they know that fashion is a way to express yourself. Don't sweat if you're not a size 0, petite girl. Who cares? There's more to life than constantly worrying about looks. Be comfortable and be you.
The Artist in the Ambulance
Thrice
Hey guys! So I've been online store browsing for the past two hours or so, mostly obsessively clicking all over urbanoutfitters.com, skimming through all of their amazing clothing. Seriously- they have some cute stuff. However, they also have some EXPENSIVE stuff! Ah! So here I am, sitting on my bed, thinking quietly to myself, "If I had 70 bucks, I would so buy a pair of pleather pants..."
Oh well.
Let me talk to you about fashion.
Quiet frankly, I don't understand it. It changes too fast, and is too particular. At the same time, I kind of love it. I don't consider myself to be very fashionable, but I do like finding legit pieces of clothing that just look cool and feel totally comfortable. That brings me to another thing- I really really really don't like shopping for clothes. It takes too long, the right size is all too often impossible to find, and it is EXTREMELY difficult to find exactly what you want. For example, I went shopping for a blouse the other day. That's all I wanted, just a one color, simple fit, no pattern blouse. But noooo, everything has to have ruffles or plaits or shiny buttons or something! What happened to simplicity? Ugh.
Overall, I think what matters most in fashion is comfort and originality. Don't dress like your best friend just because she's the most popular in school, don't wear heels if they're uncomfortable (which in my honest opinion, they are) and don't feel the need to force yourself into tight-fitting, skimpy clothing. Have polite conversations with your parents, so that they know that fashion is a way to express yourself. Don't sweat if you're not a size 0, petite girl. Who cares? There's more to life than constantly worrying about looks. Be comfortable and be you.
The Artist in the Ambulance
Thrice
Friday, November 4, 2011
A Little Bit of British Humour
Alright, now just warning you, but British humour (and I promise you, if my autocorrect tries to correct humour to humor one more time.....) is not for everyone. True, it is magnificent, fantastic and hilarious, but some people just don't appreciate it as much as others. Maybe it's like coffee, and it's and acquired taste. I dunno, but all I can say is I love it. So, my little blog readers out there, here is a funny video to get you introduced to British humour, as well as to provide an amazing take on climate change and present my personal environmentalist feelings to y'all. I hope ya love it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-F8EO3qOVk&feature=player_embedded
Good. Now go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-F8EO3qOVk&feature=player_embedded
Good. Now go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Funny Things to Brighten You Day
Hey guys! You know those days that make you feel like you have a bad case of the Mondays? The days when you're too tired to do anything, and all you want is to curl up and sleep. Well, I'm here to offer a brief period of entertainment to lighten your life! :) Enjoy!
Have you ever been surfin' YouTube, just chillin', when all of a sudden you're jumped by this CRAZY video???? Well here's a crazy video for you. Laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu2ZLLvN1n0
And if you don't laugh at this one, I'm gonna feel like a horrible person, because I laughed my head off.
http://www.pics2lol.com/mother-of-the-year-award_355.html
Next mission: Pull up Google, go to the Google Search homepage, and type in the search box "barrel roll." Do it now!
.
..
...
.....
That's right. Cool, isn't it? For more Google fun, here's this neat-o website. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6201814/Google-easter-eggs-15-best-hidden-jokes.html
Amazing how demotivational posters can cheer you up, dontcha think?
http://www.despair.com/believeinyourself.html
http://www.despair.com/wishes.html
http://www.despair.com/ambition.html
I love this video with a fiery passion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ1HKCYJM5U
Oh and watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4 and every other video in the series. Nerds unite!
To finish off this post, click this link and make yourself happier. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/11/03/do-a-barrel-roll-anywhere/
.. but click it while listening to this song.. The Sound of Sunshine by Michael Franti & Spearhead
Toodledoo!
Have you ever been surfin' YouTube, just chillin', when all of a sudden you're jumped by this CRAZY video???? Well here's a crazy video for you. Laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu2ZLLvN1n0
And if you don't laugh at this one, I'm gonna feel like a horrible person, because I laughed my head off.
http://www.pics2lol.com/mother-of-the-year-award_355.html
Next mission: Pull up Google, go to the Google Search homepage, and type in the search box "barrel roll." Do it now!
.
..
...
.....
That's right. Cool, isn't it? For more Google fun, here's this neat-o website. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6201814/Google-easter-eggs-15-best-hidden-jokes.html
Amazing how demotivational posters can cheer you up, dontcha think?
http://www.despair.com/believeinyourself.html
http://www.despair.com/wishes.html
http://www.despair.com/ambition.html
I love this video with a fiery passion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ1HKCYJM5U
Oh and watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4 and every other video in the series. Nerds unite!
To finish off this post, click this link and make yourself happier. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/11/03/do-a-barrel-roll-anywhere/
.. but click it while listening to this song.. The Sound of Sunshine by Michael Franti & Spearhead
Toodledoo!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Crushing
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=crushing
If you have no idea what crushing is, Urban Dictionary dictionary defines it nicely for you. If you don't understand why in the world I would want to talk about stuffing numerous midgets into a high velocity car, I'm talking about definition number one, thankyouverymuch.
For further clarification:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=crush (oh, and read definition 7 for laughs)
Crushing. It happens to everyone. From that one time in kindergarten when Shirley-stole-your-orange-crayon-and-made-you-cry-but-then-nicely-gave-it-back-to-you-with-a-shy-smile-that-made-you-laugh, to that time in Chemistry when you-couldn't-help-blushing-whenever-Jeremy-with-the-amazing-hair-and-his-oh-so-beautiful-blue-eyes-looked-your-way, at some point in you life you are bound to develop a crush. It happens to the best of us. So I'm going to talk about crushing!
Isn't it funny how big of an impact that one person can have on your day? They smile and wink at you, and suddenly you can''t stop smiling, there's a skip in your step (which sounds cliche but I can promise you, really does happen) and you feel like laughing for no reason at all. It's like magic. On the other hand, if you see your crush with another girl/guy, or they barely give you the time of day, your soul sinks. You get tired, bored, and have a sinking feeling in your chest that you just can't place. True, crushing does involve getting crushed sometimes. Sometimes, you will be let down, but you have to rise above and be strong. Don't focus too much of your energy on a crush! Crushes are meant to be fun, lighthearted! They're supposed to give you happy butterflies, not make you feel like sinking into the earth. I personally like seeing the sunshine, so I'm gonna focus on all of the happy stuff, how about you? :)
Google is amazing. I've been busy searching wonderful Google for a bit now in order to provide some interesting new reading about crushes... This is the first one I found, and it's a bit dorky and seems like it's aimed towards 5th graders, but hey- maybe if more things were explained to us in this easy, little kid way things would make more sense! After reading it, I personally think it has some good points and some good reminders that maybe everyone needs reminding of every now and then. http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/thought/crushes.html#
When I was in fifth or sixth grade, WikiHow was my savior. It was my go-to guide for everything. And anything. Trying to decide if I should get bangs? WikiHow it. Cutting my own bangs? WikiHow it! How to cover up a bad haircut? WikiHow it!!! Yes, WikiHow has helped me through a couple of sticky situations in my life. But eventually, I realized that WikiHow isn't as great as I thought it to be. Yes, I will still turn to it every now and then to figure out how to distress a pair of jeans, but never ever again will I use it for relationship advice. I confess, I once spent hours taking "does he like you?" tests and looking up "10 steps to make him fall for you" in my free time. But then I realized- life is about making mistakes. Especially when it comes to love, you can't plan anything out. There is no right or wrong way. In the end, the only way to figure all of this confusing stuff out is to just get out there and go for it! If they like you, great. If not? Try again next time, it's not the end of the world. However, if you want, feel free to read this webpage. The tips it gives are legitimate enough.
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Crush-(for-Boys-and-Girls)
Be yourself!!! I cannot stress this enough. If a guy (or girl) is the one for you, you won't have to change for them. If your crush can't love you for who you really are, they are definitely not worth it. This blog entry brings up this point a couple of times, yay!
http://allwomenstalk.com/ten-ways-to-get-a-guy-to-ask-you-out/
and another one, just for girls, by allwomenstalk: http://love.allwomenstalk.com/things-teenage-girls-should-learn-about-love/#mostliked what can I say? I love this blog.
Mkay, well, that pretty much sums up this post. I hope I've served you well, and don't be sad if you want to hear more about this "crushing" phenomena, I'm pretty positive I'll be posting about this topic in the future. Peace out!
If you have no idea what crushing is, Urban Dictionary dictionary defines it nicely for you. If you don't understand why in the world I would want to talk about stuffing numerous midgets into a high velocity car, I'm talking about definition number one, thankyouverymuch.
For further clarification:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=crush (oh, and read definition 7 for laughs)
Crushing. It happens to everyone. From that one time in kindergarten when Shirley-stole-your-orange-crayon-and-made-you-cry-but-then-nicely-gave-it-back-to-you-with-a-shy-smile-that-made-you-laugh, to that time in Chemistry when you-couldn't-help-blushing-whenever-Jeremy-with-the-amazing-hair-and-his-oh-so-beautiful-blue-eyes-looked-your-way, at some point in you life you are bound to develop a crush. It happens to the best of us. So I'm going to talk about crushing!
Isn't it funny how big of an impact that one person can have on your day? They smile and wink at you, and suddenly you can''t stop smiling, there's a skip in your step (which sounds cliche but I can promise you, really does happen) and you feel like laughing for no reason at all. It's like magic. On the other hand, if you see your crush with another girl/guy, or they barely give you the time of day, your soul sinks. You get tired, bored, and have a sinking feeling in your chest that you just can't place. True, crushing does involve getting crushed sometimes. Sometimes, you will be let down, but you have to rise above and be strong. Don't focus too much of your energy on a crush! Crushes are meant to be fun, lighthearted! They're supposed to give you happy butterflies, not make you feel like sinking into the earth. I personally like seeing the sunshine, so I'm gonna focus on all of the happy stuff, how about you? :)
Google is amazing. I've been busy searching wonderful Google for a bit now in order to provide some interesting new reading about crushes... This is the first one I found, and it's a bit dorky and seems like it's aimed towards 5th graders, but hey- maybe if more things were explained to us in this easy, little kid way things would make more sense! After reading it, I personally think it has some good points and some good reminders that maybe everyone needs reminding of every now and then. http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/thought/crushes.html#
When I was in fifth or sixth grade, WikiHow was my savior. It was my go-to guide for everything. And anything. Trying to decide if I should get bangs? WikiHow it. Cutting my own bangs? WikiHow it! How to cover up a bad haircut? WikiHow it!!! Yes, WikiHow has helped me through a couple of sticky situations in my life. But eventually, I realized that WikiHow isn't as great as I thought it to be. Yes, I will still turn to it every now and then to figure out how to distress a pair of jeans, but never ever again will I use it for relationship advice. I confess, I once spent hours taking "does he like you?" tests and looking up "10 steps to make him fall for you" in my free time. But then I realized- life is about making mistakes. Especially when it comes to love, you can't plan anything out. There is no right or wrong way. In the end, the only way to figure all of this confusing stuff out is to just get out there and go for it! If they like you, great. If not? Try again next time, it's not the end of the world. However, if you want, feel free to read this webpage. The tips it gives are legitimate enough.
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Crush-(for-Boys-and-Girls)
Be yourself!!! I cannot stress this enough. If a guy (or girl) is the one for you, you won't have to change for them. If your crush can't love you for who you really are, they are definitely not worth it. This blog entry brings up this point a couple of times, yay!
http://allwomenstalk.com/ten-ways-to-get-a-guy-to-ask-you-out/
and another one, just for girls, by allwomenstalk: http://love.allwomenstalk.com/things-teenage-girls-should-learn-about-love/#mostliked what can I say? I love this blog.
Mkay, well, that pretty much sums up this post. I hope I've served you well, and don't be sad if you want to hear more about this "crushing" phenomena, I'm pretty positive I'll be posting about this topic in the future. Peace out!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
I love my family.
It's strange how this happens, but sometimes you get involved in a club, or some activity, and the people you interact with, the people who are part of that activity with you- they become your family. Today I'm going to talk about my debate family, and my weekend.
Before I begin, I warn you that the next 2 paragraphs are incredibly boring and debate-jargon-y. If you really want to, feel free to skip to the last paragraph, which is really all I care about, and don't bother reading my blow-by-blow of my weekend. Otherwise, you can try reading it, and hit me up if you were confused and want a thorough explanation of the specifics and theory behind debate.
Friday afternoon at 12:45 I got to ditch my last two periods of school, get on a school bus and drive to Carson Valleys Middle School for my very first speech and debate tournament. I was... nervous, excited? I don't even know. I was so psyched to be going, and I was going to have fun. Friday was a speech day, so that meant I was going to be performing my Dramatic Interp. script. I wasn't worried. I had it memorized, and if I didn't do well, oh well, what matters most is that I had a good time. The bus ride to Carson was a lot of fun, involving me learning how to say "the purple elephant ate my pants!" in Tagalog and singing Rape Me by Nirvana with my friend Emily*. When we finally arrived, we got to go into the lunchroom and chill, waiting for rounds to start. Three rounds later (each round being in the same class room), I finally finished for speech, and got to return to the lunchroom so I could wait and see if I broke. "Breaking" means making it to finals/semi-finals by the way. Results were posted and my friend Charlie* and I both got to go to the final round of speech! Yaaaaay us. Then we all piled back into the bus, trying to make it home in time to watch the final few minutes of our last home game. We didn't make it in time, but we had tons of fun singing Beatles songs at the top of our lungs, off pitch and out of tune. That's alright, Reed murdered us anyways.
We got back at about 10:45 (keep in mind that I woke up at 5 Friday morning) and all went home. Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4:50, I woke up at 5, and was out the door by 6:15, heading for school. At 6:30 the bus left, and we were on our way to Carson Valley again. Saturday was debate day, so I had my first official round of debate at about 8 o'clock. I'm a novice debater for Lincoln Douglas (LD) I was pretty sure I was going to fail miserably. My buddy Charlie, the other novice debater, is a beast at LD. Luckily for me, my opponent for first round was unexperienced and I did pretty well. Three rounds later, (my fourth round with my Sophia*, the most challenging opponent and one of the nicest girls ever), I was pretty sure I was finished for the day. But I was wrong. At about 4:30 they announced the places of the Speech event competitors (I placed fifth out of six finalists!) and announced who of the debaters would be moving to Semi-Finals. Surprisingly, I broke. And guess who I got to debate? Sophia again! So me and Charlie (he placed first in speech by the way, and he also broke for debate) went to the Semi-final room and waited for semi-finals to begin. Charlie debated first, on the affirmative side, (the resolution being "a just society requires the recognition of animal rights") against this SUPER CRAZY girl who said that if animals were given rights, then someday on the television we would see a giraffe debating the president. ..... I know. Insane. Then she moved on to saying Charlie was advocating for murder and the slaughter of babies, and accused animal rights activists of being terrorists. It was really entertaining. When their round was over and it was my turn to debate, it was almost exactly like my fourth round. Same opponent, same level of difficulty, the only difference was I was debating the affirmative instead of the neg. When Semi-Finals was over, I was so tired! All I was thinking was "I hope either Charlie and I both win, or I lose, because I really don't want to debate another round." You see, if me and Charlie both one, it would be a Reno close-out, and we would automatically both win, and there wouldn't be a Final Round. The results were posted eventually, and you know what happened? I broke. I was going to Finals up against crazy girl. I have no idea how she beat out Charlie, because his case was amazing, and she was friction mental. But all I remember is me freaking out, Charlie and Sophia and a million of my debate friends hugging me, and then me going to Finals for debate.
For my final debate round, a bunch of my Reno friends came to watch, and I got to be the negative side against Charlie's* crazy opponent. I was pretty chill about the whole thing, because my advanced kids told me to just keep doing what I'd been doing all day, because apparently it was working. So, I did what I did all day, didn't take it super seriously, and had fun. I was kinda relieved I got to be the neg. that round, because the neg. has fewer speeches, and at that point of the day I was so brain dead and mentally tired I didn't want to do a lot of work. So after I delivered my final speech and it was my opponent's turn to basically tell the judges why she won, I was so happy. I just hung out for three minutes, listening to my opponent ranting about my case, with a smile on my face. (it rhymes!) Then the round was over, I shook my opponent's hand and congratulated her, shook all of the judges' hand, and then the Reno posse was out. I didn't think I did super well during that last round, but everyone kept hugging me and telling me how awesome they thought I was. It was overwhelming. Finally, finally, they began to announce the results. Charlie took 3rd place for LD Novice debate, and I took- First. I still can hardly believe it. All of my friends were high-fiving me and hugging me and it was wonderful. Speech and Debate might be an intense hobby, but when you have so many wonderful, amazing people there to support you... This is pretty lame and pathetic, but it was all I could do not to cry. I love my debate family, so, SO much. They are amazing, annoying, loving and frustrating, and dysfunctional but hilarious, just like a real family. Sometimes you doubt them, but they come through when you need them to. I love Speech and Debate. I love my adopted family. And I truly hope with all my heart that you have a special group of people you can call your "family", because it is one of the truly greatest things in life.
Love,
Sierra
*I changed all the names in my story for all you creepy stalkers out there
Before I begin, I warn you that the next 2 paragraphs are incredibly boring and debate-jargon-y. If you really want to, feel free to skip to the last paragraph, which is really all I care about, and don't bother reading my blow-by-blow of my weekend. Otherwise, you can try reading it, and hit me up if you were confused and want a thorough explanation of the specifics and theory behind debate.
Friday afternoon at 12:45 I got to ditch my last two periods of school, get on a school bus and drive to Carson Valleys Middle School for my very first speech and debate tournament. I was... nervous, excited? I don't even know. I was so psyched to be going, and I was going to have fun. Friday was a speech day, so that meant I was going to be performing my Dramatic Interp. script. I wasn't worried. I had it memorized, and if I didn't do well, oh well, what matters most is that I had a good time. The bus ride to Carson was a lot of fun, involving me learning how to say "the purple elephant ate my pants!" in Tagalog and singing Rape Me by Nirvana with my friend Emily*. When we finally arrived, we got to go into the lunchroom and chill, waiting for rounds to start. Three rounds later (each round being in the same class room), I finally finished for speech, and got to return to the lunchroom so I could wait and see if I broke. "Breaking" means making it to finals/semi-finals by the way. Results were posted and my friend Charlie* and I both got to go to the final round of speech! Yaaaaay us. Then we all piled back into the bus, trying to make it home in time to watch the final few minutes of our last home game. We didn't make it in time, but we had tons of fun singing Beatles songs at the top of our lungs, off pitch and out of tune. That's alright, Reed murdered us anyways.
We got back at about 10:45 (keep in mind that I woke up at 5 Friday morning) and all went home. Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4:50, I woke up at 5, and was out the door by 6:15, heading for school. At 6:30 the bus left, and we were on our way to Carson Valley again. Saturday was debate day, so I had my first official round of debate at about 8 o'clock. I'm a novice debater for Lincoln Douglas (LD) I was pretty sure I was going to fail miserably. My buddy Charlie, the other novice debater, is a beast at LD. Luckily for me, my opponent for first round was unexperienced and I did pretty well. Three rounds later, (my fourth round with my Sophia*, the most challenging opponent and one of the nicest girls ever), I was pretty sure I was finished for the day. But I was wrong. At about 4:30 they announced the places of the Speech event competitors (I placed fifth out of six finalists!) and announced who of the debaters would be moving to Semi-Finals. Surprisingly, I broke. And guess who I got to debate? Sophia again! So me and Charlie (he placed first in speech by the way, and he also broke for debate) went to the Semi-final room and waited for semi-finals to begin. Charlie debated first, on the affirmative side, (the resolution being "a just society requires the recognition of animal rights") against this SUPER CRAZY girl who said that if animals were given rights, then someday on the television we would see a giraffe debating the president. ..... I know. Insane. Then she moved on to saying Charlie was advocating for murder and the slaughter of babies, and accused animal rights activists of being terrorists. It was really entertaining. When their round was over and it was my turn to debate, it was almost exactly like my fourth round. Same opponent, same level of difficulty, the only difference was I was debating the affirmative instead of the neg. When Semi-Finals was over, I was so tired! All I was thinking was "I hope either Charlie and I both win, or I lose, because I really don't want to debate another round." You see, if me and Charlie both one, it would be a Reno close-out, and we would automatically both win, and there wouldn't be a Final Round. The results were posted eventually, and you know what happened? I broke. I was going to Finals up against crazy girl. I have no idea how she beat out Charlie, because his case was amazing, and she was friction mental. But all I remember is me freaking out, Charlie and Sophia and a million of my debate friends hugging me, and then me going to Finals for debate.
For my final debate round, a bunch of my Reno friends came to watch, and I got to be the negative side against Charlie's* crazy opponent. I was pretty chill about the whole thing, because my advanced kids told me to just keep doing what I'd been doing all day, because apparently it was working. So, I did what I did all day, didn't take it super seriously, and had fun. I was kinda relieved I got to be the neg. that round, because the neg. has fewer speeches, and at that point of the day I was so brain dead and mentally tired I didn't want to do a lot of work. So after I delivered my final speech and it was my opponent's turn to basically tell the judges why she won, I was so happy. I just hung out for three minutes, listening to my opponent ranting about my case, with a smile on my face. (it rhymes!) Then the round was over, I shook my opponent's hand and congratulated her, shook all of the judges' hand, and then the Reno posse was out. I didn't think I did super well during that last round, but everyone kept hugging me and telling me how awesome they thought I was. It was overwhelming. Finally, finally, they began to announce the results. Charlie took 3rd place for LD Novice debate, and I took- First. I still can hardly believe it. All of my friends were high-fiving me and hugging me and it was wonderful. Speech and Debate might be an intense hobby, but when you have so many wonderful, amazing people there to support you... This is pretty lame and pathetic, but it was all I could do not to cry. I love my debate family, so, SO much. They are amazing, annoying, loving and frustrating, and dysfunctional but hilarious, just like a real family. Sometimes you doubt them, but they come through when you need them to. I love Speech and Debate. I love my adopted family. And I truly hope with all my heart that you have a special group of people you can call your "family", because it is one of the truly greatest things in life.
Love,
Sierra
*I changed all the names in my story for all you creepy stalkers out there
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