More on 11th grade

Having failed to establish a policy debate program at Central High School, I was not giving up on being a debater. Policy debate is really an addiction. Rounds are extremely fast paced, as they consist of flowing (writing down the arguments being made by the opposing team and your partner), retrieval of evidence to support the arguments you make (I walked around with 3 huge bins full of said evidence), and thinking of ways to refute the arguments that the opposing team is making, all at the same time. I offered to debate for any school around the twin cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul, for the uninformed) and was recruited by Edina, with whom I went to tournaments for the rest of the year. Edina was a debate powerhouse; it was nice to be part of such a large program. However, because I was from another school and hence ineligible to go to state and national tournaments, Edina gave me the shaft. I debated with a few different partners and never did well because they simply weren’t very good debaters. Indeed, in 12th grade, when I debated by myself (something much harder to do, since I had to do the work of two people), I did better than when I debated with a bad partner at Edina. I should have just cloned myself.

Since Cheri and I never went on formal dates, I went out of my way to spend time with her. During school, I skipped Physics II to be with her during her free period. At night, in spite of my parents, I would sneak out and drive to her house. I would come back at 2 or 3, barely able to keep my eyes open from lack of sleep, and fall asleep in my car, lacking the energy the energy to go upstairs. When it was cold, I actually left my car running so that I would have heat – not the smartest of things to do.