PET 閱讀 Part 3
長文四選一

Why I Nearly Quit the Debate Team

When my best friend Ivy begged me to join the school debate team last year, I only agreed so she would stop asking. I imagined debating would be like the arguments I have with my little brother, except with better words. I was wrong. At my first practice, our coach, Ms Huang, gave me a topic — 'Schools should not give homework' — and four minutes to prepare a two-minute speech. Four minutes! I stood up, opened my mouth, and completely forgot every point I had written down. I sat back down feeling my face turn red while a boy named Kevin calmly listed six reasons I had not even thought of.

For the next few weeks, I was not looking forward to Tuesday practices. I was not bad exactly — I just felt slower than everyone else, always one step behind. After a competition where I lost every round and forgot my final speech halfway through, I decided I was done. I told Ivy I was quitting, and I meant it.

It was Kevin, of all people, who talked me out of it. He found me after school and said something I did not expect: that he had been just as nervous in his first year, and the only reason he seemed confident now was that he had kept showing up even when he was bad at it. 'Nobody is good at this on day one,' he said. 'You are only seeing the person I became after failing a hundred times.'

I am not sure why that helped so much, but it did. I stayed on the team, and slowly, debating stopped feeling like a performance and started feeling like a game — one where I got to look through information, find the weak point in an argument, and build my own case piece by piece. I still get nervous before every round. My hands still shake a little when I stand up. But six months after nearly quitting, I helped my team win an important competition, and for once, I was the one telling a nervous new member not to worry. I doubt I will ever be the most talented debater in the room. I have made my peace with that — being the one who never gives up has turned out to be enough.