When your opinion matters

In high school I was apart of the debate squad. Although it was required for us to be argumentative to win the rounds, I particularly remember my Junior year of debate. It was during this year that we wrote a case about peacekeeping missions related to the United Nations. For our case we chose the Ivory Coast which is heavily known for blood diamonds. The hours and weeks that were spent on research and writing the case made me truly believe in what I was writing about. The horrific torture that the country's citizens had to endure was terrifying to me. It was clear how money hungry these people were. Our case was rather strong, and even though I was biased to it, our coach and other judges felt it was a strong case as well. My partner and I used the case throughout the season, making the argument stronger as the season progressed. I felt that are passion about the topic really helped the judges see why our team should win each round. We had to persuade the judge that our topic and our plan to fix the problem was the best solution and we had a winning season.