Nksor Beezo Level: 46      Posts: 468/478 EXP: 662984 For next: 48790 Since: 04-27-11 Pronouns: they/them From: olympia, wa Since last post: 3.6 years Last activity: 3.6 years 
|
|
| It's been a few years. Looking over my past posts, I saw a couple of pretty noticeable themes: out of place, grandiose vocabulary, and all the marks present for a kid who thought he knew everything about politics/what have you but clearly didn't know much.
Maybe I'm remembering things worse than they actually were, but I was kinda insufferable. And you might remember me as that too, or maybe worse, haha. In my defense, during that time I was 12-14 years old, and the only thing separating my from most at my age was different interests and a more solid base vocabulary. Maturity-wise, there wasn't much. I've grown older. Not much older, but I'm comfortable in saying that I've matured a good bit. I've learned to stop taking myself so seriously. And now I'm here. There seems to be a community that's present but not very vocal about it, at least on the forums. So, maybe it's time to give the forums another shot. I guess the rest might fall under TL;DR but if you wanna read it that'd be great. During the time I've been gone, a couple key things have happened in my life. Debate. My getting involved in an activity like speech and debate was originally to give me an outlet to voice my opinions, but it didn't take long for my priorities to shift. I started meeting a lot of different people with vastly different world views than mine. It taught me tolerance for opinions all across the spectrum, and it also helped greatly with my social skills. This last summer, my performance in debate the year before got me invited to join a 5 person team to represent Washington State in the World Schools Debate Invitational, hosted at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Dallas, TX. Our team was to go against teams representing other states in the US, as well as teams from around the world, representing countries such as Zimbabwe, Mexico, and Ghana. It was honestly a huge honor just to get to go, but what happened there was even more special. We did really well. Like, stupidly surprisingly well. Our team ended up getting to the Octafinals of the whole thing, after being pitted up against nearly 150 teams. What surprised me even more was my personal performance. At the end of each round, the judges declare a winning team, and they also give 'speaker points' to each person who spoke in the debate. At the end of the tournament at awards, they honor the top 14 speakers based on points on stage. Out of the around 500 speakers at the tournament, I ended up getting 9th. Maybe this sounds a bit self-congratulatory, but I found the award both amazing and kind of funny. I stuck out like a sore thumb. I made it through the tournament with long hair and a chintzy laptop emblazoned with a retsupurae sticker and a Jigglypuff one as well that said "Rest 'Em." All around me while lining up on stage were kids with short haircuts and much nicer suits than mine, attending prep schools with debate teams of 300. And here I was, this random kid, shaking the hands of the tournament directors and receiving my award in front of a huge crowd and a front row of applauding scouts from ivy league schools. It's for the sure the greatest reward I've ever received, and I can't name a moment in my life that was much better. Decades down the road, when I'm thinking back on my life, that will probably be one of the highlights. Video games. I got pretty ok at a couple of them. Last year I managed to get to be the second highest ranked T Hawk online in Ultra Street Fighter 4, and my latest endeavor has been Super Smash Bros. Melee, hence the "Rest 'Em" sticker earlier. I play in the Portland, OR. scene; if anyone is interested in playing, let me know. Always looking for new people to play with. Anyway, that's about it. Thanks for reading this all the way through if you did. More or less expect me to post a bit around here; hopefully I can make a few new friends.  |
It's a pretty new phenomenon to be able to look back and actually read exactly what you said as a teenager, and for most people, it's terrible. I don't think anybody likes who they were when they were 13, 15, 19 or whenever. You're not the only one. I even changed my screen name to (partially) get away from that aspect of myself. Luckily, most of my old haunts don't exist any more.
____________________
____________________
