To the Seniors
I have written 7000 words post-NDT (here, here and here), but this is the post that is the most important and for which I am the most excited.
Seniors mean so much to the activity and cannot be cherished enough. I hope no senior underestimates the following: when folks look back on a team, those memories will be framed as your years. You built it. You sustained it. You helped it grow. You pushed the program to new heights. You left a handprint on the debate community and it is up to the rest of us to make sure it is appreciated and not forgotten.
Seniors are so important because they represent a process. It’s a process that gives coaches the energy to dedicate their lives to the activity. It’s a process younger folks can look up to and hope to surpass.
The process I am referring to is the growth we all know debate causes. Looking back now that we have graduated from the debating part of the activity, we all have some sense of this. If you think back to your start, I imagine it is surprising how little you knew and how many subjects were brand new to you (I cannot emphasize enough how stupid I was about literally everything in 2008 when I started college debate). Now that you have survived the toughest academic competition on the planet, I imagine everything else seems a bit easier.
But I am not just talking about growth through reading and learning. Being a senior means you were part of a team. You helped it grow, you defined its trajectory, you dealt with the ups and the downs, you managed tension and contradiction. The human relation element: fusing different personalities and experiences into a force that can achieve a common goal as challenging as succeeding at academic debate is something that shapes lives. You played a huge role in that process. Don’t let anyone ever say your time in debate had minimal impact.
Seniors deserve the world, and I want to play my part. There is a new part of this website. Seniors then sorted by class. I hope it catches on as a new vehicle to honor seniors that is more concentrated and permanent than an awards ceremony or a facebook post.
I have only put this idea in circulaton for a short time and have compiled what others have told me. I welcome anyone who wants to share a story about any senior to send me a message through any platform and I will update the page immediately.
Accolades are listed as well, and I wanted to say something about that. Accolades do not have independent meaning. Rather, accolades are important for what they represent and the shared meaning they signify. 4-time NDT qualifier isn’t listed to signify that the person is better than 3- or 0-time NDT qualifiers, but to help tell a story. We know 4-time NDT qualifiers, some of us were 4-time NDT qualifiers, and we can appreciate what it says about someone and their team when that is listed under their name.
The same sense of memory and appreciation is triggered for me when I hear someone won JV/Novice nationals or joined the newly created team as a junior and is now graduating. There doesn’t need to be a hierarchy of accomplishments in which only those over a certain bar get to count for value. Instead, people should widen their perspective and come to appreciate all the ways in which debate can impact someone and the ways someone can impact debate.
Thank you, seniors. You changed the game. Now, it is up to the rest of us to honor that impact and carry the lessons forward.
Seniors mean so much to the activity and cannot be cherished enough. I hope no senior underestimates the following: when folks look back on a team, those memories will be framed as your years. You built it. You sustained it. You helped it grow. You pushed the program to new heights. You left a handprint on the debate community and it is up to the rest of us to make sure it is appreciated and not forgotten.
Seniors are so important because they represent a process. It’s a process that gives coaches the energy to dedicate their lives to the activity. It’s a process younger folks can look up to and hope to surpass.
The process I am referring to is the growth we all know debate causes. Looking back now that we have graduated from the debating part of the activity, we all have some sense of this. If you think back to your start, I imagine it is surprising how little you knew and how many subjects were brand new to you (I cannot emphasize enough how stupid I was about literally everything in 2008 when I started college debate). Now that you have survived the toughest academic competition on the planet, I imagine everything else seems a bit easier.
But I am not just talking about growth through reading and learning. Being a senior means you were part of a team. You helped it grow, you defined its trajectory, you dealt with the ups and the downs, you managed tension and contradiction. The human relation element: fusing different personalities and experiences into a force that can achieve a common goal as challenging as succeeding at academic debate is something that shapes lives. You played a huge role in that process. Don’t let anyone ever say your time in debate had minimal impact.
Seniors deserve the world, and I want to play my part. There is a new part of this website. Seniors then sorted by class. I hope it catches on as a new vehicle to honor seniors that is more concentrated and permanent than an awards ceremony or a facebook post.
I have only put this idea in circulaton for a short time and have compiled what others have told me. I welcome anyone who wants to share a story about any senior to send me a message through any platform and I will update the page immediately.
Accolades are listed as well, and I wanted to say something about that. Accolades do not have independent meaning. Rather, accolades are important for what they represent and the shared meaning they signify. 4-time NDT qualifier isn’t listed to signify that the person is better than 3- or 0-time NDT qualifiers, but to help tell a story. We know 4-time NDT qualifiers, some of us were 4-time NDT qualifiers, and we can appreciate what it says about someone and their team when that is listed under their name.
The same sense of memory and appreciation is triggered for me when I hear someone won JV/Novice nationals or joined the newly created team as a junior and is now graduating. There doesn’t need to be a hierarchy of accomplishments in which only those over a certain bar get to count for value. Instead, people should widen their perspective and come to appreciate all the ways in which debate can impact someone and the ways someone can impact debate.
Thank you, seniors. You changed the game. Now, it is up to the rest of us to honor that impact and carry the lessons forward.