Forensics

You're about to step into a world of suits, heels for girls, ties for boys, and the art of talking to walls. That's right, you're entering the land of Forensics Meets.

The bus rolls into the campus, we get out and face the bitter December wind, snow, and ice that have come out to greet us, and then head inside... and find that their school hasn't dismissed yet. That means that we had to practically tiptoe down the hall to the cafeteria (which was the meeting ground for the forensics teams).

We sat, prepared, taught my mom the ins and outs of judging a forensics round, and watched the other teams come in and do the same. That's when my category was called out of the room... and also when the fire alarm went off.

Standing up, people went to leave through the nearest exit (obviously thinking a fire alarm meant there actually was a fire in the building... silly rabbits... but no, apparently the fire alarm was just excited we were all there. That's the only reason for the disruption I could think of).

The extemporaneous (my category) and commentary were then taken to the library upstairs.

Now, remember, the fire alarm went off. It's still going. Every three minutes or so it comes back, then turns off, then comes back on, and then goes off. Then this guy comes on the loud speakers and says, "Please pardon the interruption but the fire alarm is going to go off, but please do not exit the building." A little late, don't you think?

Anyway, finally the noise dies down and we are free to get our instructions for extemp and com (forensics names for the long names of the categories).

We are told that soon we will draw for speaking order and then the competitors, in the order they are speaking, will come up and choose their topics.

But, let me explain extemp and com. These two categories are different than any other category in Forensics. First, we don't have a speech to memories prior to the meet. No, we actually get our topics when we get there. When our numbers are called (not our names, but our assigned numbers) we approach the table and choose three of the dozen face down slips of paper. Then, from the three, we can pick one of the topics. That will be the topic of our speech. Then we have 30 minutes after picking our topics to make our speeches. We have a single index card, which we can only have 50 words on, to take to the round with us. This happens three times (a new speech for each round).

With extemp our topics will be a question. One of mine was "Is enough being done to prevent the spread of H1N1?". For com, they have a word. The person who did com for my school had the topic of "Patrick Swayze".

So, anyway, there we are. There are about 16 competitors in the library. 12 are for com and the other 4 are for extemp.

After getting our speaking order, gradually people are being called up to choose their topics. That's when the action starts.

When people hear forensics (my mom thought about crime scenes, but... anyway) people think about speeches. But really, there's a ton of stuff that goes on. One girl kept redoing her hair. A boy (who, by the way, won nationals last year) is organizing his files and then highlighting in new magazines (wow!) and then there's this other girl who just sits and stares at everyone.

Me, I was reading since there wasn't anything else to do at that time since I had yet to get my topic. That's when I felt the need to use the restroom. That's also when my number was called to pick my topic. So, for the next 40 minutes I wrote out my speech, talked to the wall (which is how all forensics kids recite their speeches before their round) and wishing I could go to the bathroom.

Here are the times for each of my rounds:
Round 1: 3:14
Round 2: 5:17
Round 3: 4:04

My best and favorite round was Round 2. I had a political question "What is the probability of there being a national vote in Iraq in January?"

I wasn't nervous, but during my last round I was really restless. I was starving! and my feet were killing me. Thankfully I still didn't have to use the bathroom at that time because I went between the rounds.

At this time I'd like to point out that I was in the room from 1:30 to 5:45 except when I took 4 minute trips downstairs to the restroom.

After the 3 rounds I went downstairs, my team ordered pizza, and then the awards ceremony started.

I got 3rd place in Extemp!!! I was SOOO excited, seeing as this was my first time ever doing extemp.

Until next time,
Stasia