Passion

"Florida State University, here we come!" Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee, what a trip! On the road againÐ'...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, on the road again, that damn song always in my head when we're going on a long bus ride. I should figure out the words in between, but I'm always too lazy. Now that I think about it, I still have two cases to write if I want debate. Mr. Wakefield would kill me if he knew I'm going to a huge state tournament unprepared. I'm not worried, I'll do it after the first stopÐ'...I'm tired now anyways. I'll just take a little nap. I woke up because of all the noiseÐ'...we're at the first stop. It's been four hours?! I'm still tired, so, I put my head back again. Once again, I woke up because of the noiseÐ'...we're at the second stop now. I slept through another four hours, I can't believe it, and I didn't get anything done! I'm not worried, I'll write my cases after this stopÐ'... I'm hungry anyways. So, I ate a bunch of snacks, listened to my Walkman, and went back to the bus. I'm just going to relax right now; my head hurts and my stomach is full.

Here we are, Tallahassee, Florida! It's okay, I'm not worried, once we eat dinner and settle in our hotel rooms, I'll write my cases. So, we eat dinner, get our rooms, unpack, and now I'm way too tired to write my casesÐ'... I'll write before the tournament tomorrow.

The tournament is about to start and I still don't have any cases readyÐ'...it's okay; I can write it before my rounds. I look over to the side and see someone posting the rounds up. All right, rounds are going to start in fifteen minutes and I don't have my cases ready Ð'- okay, now it is time to panic! Well, I always said I work better under pressureÐ'...obviously, a lot of pressure. I sit down and I'm writing as fast as I possibly can. Wow, so many ideasÐ'...my hand can't keep up! I can smell the smoke coming from the pencil grinding on my notepad. I can hear myself rooting for myselfÐ'...go, go, go, go, Usilia you're awesome! Okay, it's time to go to my round, so I plot my butt down next to the door and continue writing. When my opponent gets there, I tilt my notepad so he doesn't see what I'm writing. The judge arrives, so we all go inside and I'm still writing away. I'm Affirmative, so I go to present my case first. Whew! I just finish writing in time! I walk up to the front of the room feeling relieved and a bit more prepared. As I present, I can hear the adrenaline racing to the top of my head as if I was going to burst. My heart races from all the thoughts and ideas that run in my mind. All I could think wasÐ'... Wow, I really love this feeling.

I walk out of that round thinkingÐ'... damn, he was good and preparedÐ'... I'm screwed! I have to wait for my next round to start, so I start writing my negative case and revise my affirmative. Eventually, I finished both my cases and I'm ready to go to my next round. I walk in the room and waitÐ'...everyone arrives and now we begin. After that round, I felt a little more confident because my opponent wasn't that good. I have four more rounds to go; let's do it! I noticed the more rounds I did, the more insecure I got about winning because I wasn't doing that well. It's just one of those days, plus I wasn't prepared and my opponents were very good. It's pretty disappointing. Oh well, no one can win them all!

At this point, I was so exhausted my brain actually hurt. I decided I had no chance, so I changed out of my uncomfortable suit, played my Walkman, found a desk, and put my head down for the rest of the tournament. Five minutes later, someone tapped my shoulder, took of my headphones, and asked, " Usilia, what are you doing, why did you change, what if you broke?" With my eyes half way open, I replied, " Trust me, I didn't make it to the next round, so let me sleep!" I put my earphones back on and continued resting. About an hour and a half later, I hear the obnoxious screaming of debaters, " I broke, I broke, I'm going on to Octos." They must have done really well in the preliminary rounds to break to the last eight rounds. Usually, everyone cheers or congratulates them, but I just smiled to gave them a lazy congratulations; however, in my head, I was thinking, well, at the very least they will be octo-finalists. Then, once again, I put my head back down. Suddenly, I hear my name being screamed by at least ten people. I take my earphones off and the debaters from my school swarm me like bees after honey.

"You broke Usilia, you broke!" What the hell did you change for, you didn't even know if you made it!!"

"Trust me, I knewÐ'...now, leave me alone."

Another debater said, " What! You broke, go change fast, you only have fifteen minutes to get to your next round."

"Shut up! That's not very funny, guys."

"If