Passion

“Florida State University, here we come!” Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee, what a trip! On the road again…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 stop…I’m tired now anyways. I’ll just take a little nap. I woke up because of all the noise…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 noise…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 stop… 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 cases… I’ll write before the tournament tomorrow.

The tournament is about to start and I still don’t have any cases ready…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 – okay, now it is time to panic! Well, I always said I work better under pressure…obviously, a lot of pressure. I sit down and I’m writing as fast as I possibly can. Wow, so many ideas…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 myself…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.