Perseverance

Debating is one of my favorite activities. However, during debate class, I used to doodle in my notebook, not paying attention to the teacher. I didn’t like it at all. Each time I lost, I stalked out the classroom and slammed the door.

At my first debate class, I totally disagreed with the topic of the debate. I loathed the side I was assigned and refused to write or plan anything I was going to say to support my side. It was too tough for me, and I just couldn’t understand why I had to speak up for something I didn’t believe!

When I was debating, I used weak and invalid points that I didn’t think about with care.

As expected, our team did not win succeed in winning. When I heard the results, I curled my hands into fists and wanted to shout at the teacher. I was furious!

When the teacher explained, “Ann, your reasoning isn’t quite right. You won’t stand much chance of winning if you keep arguing like this.” I rolled my eyes and closed my ears to her criticism. I was even more annoyed. I still didn’t understand why I lost.

The discussion at the end of the class did not interest me. I was just staring into space, thinking of my next meal while the teacher was rambling on and on about the boring topic.

Month after month, every class ended with my effective points still locked away behind an invisible wall. Frustration gnawed at me, and the thought of giving up loomed large.

Though, one day, when I was watching TV, I saw a young Olympic medalist being interviewed. He said, “I must’ve tried endlessly to jump over that railing, and I kept failing. But then, on that one final attempt, I got over it!” When I heard that, I finally understood that I shouldn’t quit anything easily on anything, even debating. I regretted that I ignored the teacher’s help for such a long time. I decided to be more motivated and to return to debate class.

After months of debating practice, my teacher told me that I was doing much better. It felt like a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders. All these long and intimidating debate sessions paid off! This taught me an important lesson: Perseverance is significant in every way.