Skip to main content

The Tournament of Words and Expressions

By Anonymous
Su-Ji Lim

While February 14-18 of 2019 was another normal school week for Dalat students, a group of high school students had a completely different experience consisting of a whirlwind of stress, nervous energy, and chaos, but also a time of forming and deepening relationships.

The 41st annual Forensics tournament had started.

Held at ISKL (International School of Kuala Lumpur), the forensics tournament consisted of a serious of competitions in the categories of debate, oral interpretation, original oratory, solo acting, duet acting, impromptu, and extemporaneous speaking. Dalat students each competed in two categories.

Although it may seem like a tournament is one of the last places to make new friends, every Dalat student did just that. According to Raven Chua (11), “Meeting new friends is always the best part about the tournament. It always feels awkward to initiate conversations, but I always get reminded of how friendly everyone is when I try to talk to them.”

And indeed, the students from other schools were very friendly and easy to talk to. A simple “Good job! You were so good!” could easily turn into a fifteen-minute conversation. Every Dalat student made at least one new acquaintance or friend. Those who had Instagram followed each other, while those who didn’t just treasured the names and faces of the new people they met.

The tournament also helped deepen existing friendships between the contestants. Elizabeth Horton (11) commented about how friendships deepened even in the midst of overwhelming stress. “Though there was constant pressure, it helped solidify friendships. People’s true colors show when they are under that amount of stress,” she said.

Three days of consecutive stress normally makes people lose their tempers and show the less desirable sides of themselves, but forensics students pushed through and bonded as a team.
All in all, the forensics team came back to Penang with new and deepened friendships. What made the trip so special was not the competition aspect of the tournament, but the relational side.

Forensics 2019 students and coaches. PC: Mrs. Lydia Roberts

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DINGBAT DALAT STUDENT SPENDS PRECIOUS TIME CONJURING UP SELF-REFERENTIAL SENIOR SCRIBBLE RATHER THAN GATHERING LEGITIMATE WORK

By Anonymous
Yusoof Monawvil PENANG, MA - As the deadline drew near and the stars aligned in the night sky above the majestic waters of the Strait of Malacca, one particular Dalat student—Yusoof Monawvil (12), despite a plethora of school events to select and report on—opted instead to spend a remarkably well-wasted 24 minutes staring at a blank Google Docs page, fruitlessly drawing up and shooting down brainstormed ideas.  In a moment of sheer and undeniable epiphany, Monawvil deemed it only fitting to self-referentially satirize his own ingrained incompetence and dingbattery. Commenting on the flash of insight, Monawvil quoted himself, saying: “It all just kinda made sense. I went on DISCourse to look at the little rubric thing Ms. Grad and Mr. Hieber posted, and I checked if I was following all of the guidelines... And I technically am/was; [N]ot like there’s any specific direktive [sic] prohibiting self-quoting.”  In a turn of events, Monawvil did come to find his self-quoting en...
6 comments
Read more

"Spikeball, Swimming, and Sickness: The Remnants of Senior Sneak" by Ee Rynn Ong

By
“Guys, I think we’re here,” said Jonathan Ooi (12) as he peeked out of the lorry to catch the first glimpse of our Senior Sneak location. This year’s Senior Sneak was held in Nomad Adventure, Gopeng, and the organizers planned many activities for the Class of 2026, ranging from traditional games like congkak and batu seremban to adrenaline-pumping ropes courses and whitewater rafting. These scheduled activities proved to be some of the best highlights of the trip, but top of that, the seniors were also given some daily free time to chat, explore, and relax. Josh Stevens (12) had come prepared for this with two spikeball nets, which immediately attracted attention from people eager to spend time in the outdoor sun. The next five days saw spikeball veterans and newcomers alike, spending their precious one and a half hours daily around the unassuming circular net, smashing the yellow ball in hopes of a victory.  Caleb Evans (12) was one of the newbies to spikeball, learning how the g...
Post a Comment
Read more

“I Miss Her” by Nikhil Pillay

By
While most people had a fun week for mid-semester break, whether it was spent with family, or with friends on impact trips, no one had a more emotionally confusing week than Judson Kenneth Robert Nosker (12).  In the light of recent events, Judson, despite all odds, had gotten in a relationship with one of his classmates, and as the break started, he had started to spend a lot of time with her. While with her, he started to experience a new level of joy and completeness that he had never felt before. In the words of Judson Nosker, “The first half of the break was good, but the rest of it was horrible.”  The reason for such a quote and the roller coaster of emotion was because half way through the break, disaster had struck. Judson’s girlfriend had gone on a trip with her family to Thailand, leaving Judson all alone. For the rest of the week, Judson was in a state of longing for her presence.  His friends have reported numerous occasions when Judson would be sitting with t...
Post a Comment
Read more