Oct 21, 2024 At 03:04 PM EDT
"The decision is 2-1 for the Negative." Cheers and applause erupted. The sounds of chairs moving, backpacks unzipping, and people talking filled up the room. But I was still. This was the semifinal of the 2024 California National Debate Institute, the tournament every top debater in the state has been preparing for over the last three weeks. Though I won, I couldn't process what had just happened.
Unlike my friends from the novice division, I did not cheer. I did not smile. I sat in what seemed like complete silence, in disbelief. My only thought: "I can't believe I won."
Coming from an Urban Debate League, competing nationally can be difficult. It was a very rare occurrence to see someone like me make it this far on the national circuit. We have to learn how to be creative with the resources we have, compete against debaters with more coaching, and also find ways to support our own debate programs—all at once.
Debate camps are a privilege, and thanks to the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League (SVUDL), I had the opportunity to learn amongst extraordinary debaters across the country. Most of my high school career was spent competing in public forum debate, and I decided to switch formats my last year and delve deeper into critical research.
While I was excited to explore policy debate, I also felt really behind. Traditionally, debaters in their last year are expected to be at the top of their game, and while the people my age were in the varsity lab, I was starting over as a novice. The first thought echoing in my mind was, How will I ever catch up to everyone? I struggled at first with all the new concepts and technicalities of policy debate.
Seeing others years ahead, I couldn't help but feel hopeless. It wasn't until after night lectures, when I was watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, I realized the youngest I will ever be is now, and focusing on what I could've been if I started earlier will get me nowhere. And so I locked in and got to work.
Leading up to the tournament, I spent hours in lab rewriting my cases sentence by sentence to perfect them. My lab leaders, Emilio Menotti, Riley Reichel and Mateo Mijares, went the extra mile for me and my partner, throughout camp and the tournament. Whether it was ripping apart our cases, advocating for us or just being there for moral support, I never would have achieved what I did without them.
When the California National Debate Institute tournament came, you could feel the competitive energy from everyone at camp. For three days, everywhere I looked, people were preparing research in an effort to win. I've done national level tournaments before, and I remember how terrifying it can be going against debaters with more resources than someone from a UDL.
Debate at its core is an elite research game, so the person with more time, better coaches and better preparation often is the winner. There are very few moments when I see debaters in similar positions as mine make it far nationally, so oftentimes I try to keep my expectations low. At the time, I was more afraid of having hope than losing.
Each round, I would mentally prepare myself for the moment the other shoe would drop, the moment we are out of the game. However, the work we did ended up paying off, and people were surprised that a novice team who had just learned the format three weeks ago was making it far; to be honest, we were too. As much as I was afraid to hope for more, I realized that I really wanted to keep playing the game.
Feeling the transition from losing each practice debate to beating teams that were far ahead of us was exhilarating. When we heard the decision of the semifinal, I was in disbelief. I forgot about my fears for a moment and couldn't process how we had just won. Though I put my all into my preparation, I never expected to make it as far as I did. Not because I didn't work hard enough, but because no one in positions like mine has ever done something like it. I was used to seeing my peers back home fall short despite working twice as hard. But this experience has taught me that this does not always have to be the case.
Upon reflecting on this, I realized that I didn't win because I was lucky. I won due to the unwavering support of my peers and mentors, and because I knew that my victory at camp would mean so much more than just personal success. My wins are a statement to the debaters and students back home that it doesn't matter where you start or where you came from, anything is possible. From this, I hope to inspire my teammates to be brave enough to hope, to dream bigger.
Chloe Truong is a senior at Independence High School in San Jose, California. She is one of her speech and debate team's founding members and the current president, initially focusing on Public Forum debate before transitioning to Policy Debate this year. At the California National Debate Institute, Chloe was named co-champion of the tournament, and is currently sharing the knowledge she gained from camp with her novices as policy captain. She hopes to study political economics in college and become a lawyer one day.
