Power in Debate
I can't remember the first time I felt very powerful, however, there was this one time, about 5 years ago when my older sister tried to belittle me by reminding me of how much smarter she is than me. You see, growing up, she did very well in grade school. Most of the time she had straight A's, she studied harder and had so much more discipline than I did. All the while, she would constantly remind me of how much smarter she was than me. Well, there we were many years after high school graduation and her searching for a job after being laid off by a retail store and with only a high school diploma to show for her education.
We were having our typical competition of who was smarter and I was winning! I was able to articulate my argument and I out witted her. She through in my face that she is still smarter than me and I just looked at her and said, "aw, how cute, you still think you're smarter than me!" She gave me a look like she felt defeated and had nothing more to say.
It took many years to be able to win an argument with her but through careful word choice and taking my time to think carefully, I did it. I took a debate class before that argument and I was able to use skills I learned in that class to strengthen my argument. I felt powerful. And by the look on her face, she felt like I did after every argument prior to that day.
That day proved to me that I am smart and it gave me the confidence to stand up for what I believe in regardless of the opposition. It's funny because although I had so much education to back me, I was still too intimidated to stand up for myself because I always second guessed myself when it came time to debate. Not anymore!
It's so great that you now have that confidence! It just goes to show that those insecurities don't go away- we just have to work with what we have and sometimes gain more of an understanding about ourselves (which you did by taking that debate class). I like this! :]
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