Concerning Meeting People

This weekend was the rookie debate tournament, perhaps my favorite of the year. A) I don't have to do anything and B) I get a chance to meet all the novices.

This second one is what the weekend is really about. For the six weeks beforehand, I sit in the same classroom as the novices, watching them toil away at their work. It's cute, really, observing them doing their best, unaware of the much lower Varsity work ethic. I see them, and they see me. Occasionally, I might be called on to edit a speech or offer a pointer on how to speak. But by and large, we don't interact. We stay in our cliques, divided by experience level, and work independently.

Then the first tournament comes, and the walls break down. The novices get a terrifying first dose of experience, and the Varsity members are whisked away to judge. At once, the rest of the league is visible to your team. There is no more novice or varsity, only teammates who are suddenly surrounded with people as new to this as they are. It's exciting and scary, and the team gathers around two or three or five tables in a corner. Any class division is thrown to the wind as the competition fills up most of the room. Immediately, I find myself asking the novices how their rounds went, trying to recall the names of judges they should be wary of or opponents that are welcome pushovers.

This process starts out of duty more than anything else, but quickly evolves into something more. Something clicks. I'm surrounded by a bunch of people who I've shared a class with since September, but I know nothing more than their face. Our talks of rounds quickly degenerates into small talk, and I find that I've suddenly increased the number of people I call friends.

Making friends is cool. I tend to forget this until I get an opportunity to make a bunch at once. So often, I focus on people I don't like. This weekend was one of those times when I got to meet a bunch of people I do. I have learned that when I am surrounded by people you don't like, it's because of circumstance. When I'm surrounded by people I like, it's because I actively pursue them. One of my biggest regrets, I realize, is that I was too passive through high school. I think I missed out on a lot of potentially cool people this way.

I changed that this weekend. And I think I made some amazing acquaintances. It was a great weekend.