I was shaking

I found out I am going to represent my school in a debate. I was a little nerves at first I thought to myself how can I do this, how can I do a good job debating and how can I impress the panel of judges.

The year was 2002. It was the early days of debate in high schools, I represented my school by debating against a neighbouring school.

I had to prepare for 4 days before the competition and spent a lot of time preparing notes to take with me and also practiced my presentation skills. The day finally arrived and I was the first one up in the morning. I left the house and went to the conference, my adrenaline was racing.

I was nervous and my hands were shaking when it was my time to speak and Present my point on the topic, when it was time for the questions from the panel of judges I thought to myself you got this. After it was all over, I heard that I had won my debate competition on the spot. The panel of judges were pleased with my points and I emerged the winner of the debate.

My parents and teachers were all excited about my achievement. They felt that I had gone a long way and they were proud of me. This is one of my best experiences in my school days.

It wasn't just a local victory, my school had been judged the best in the state that year. I was invited to join the National team, I declined, to pursue my studies instead.

Since then, I have never been back to debate, and many years later, I read that my old school had very few winners (debaters) who managed to represent their schools and subsequently represent their states and schools. This got me thinking about what happened to those young people who managed to break-out of that tradition. Did they go on to win more championships? Did they go on to be exceptional "leaders" in their own right? Where are they now? I wanted to know if they were doing well or not.

My question was really brought home when a friend referred to me as a "captain" of my team in high school; she asked me if I knew how much of an honor it was in Nigerian society for young men and women to be called "captain". I didn't know and I still don't understand what she means.

The moral of this story is that listening attentively, doing your homework and preparing for any upcoming opportunity you will succeed.

Thanks for reading 💚