30 Tiny Truths - 5

5. Master Debater

So back in high school I was on the debate team.
I know, I was just that cool. Technically it's not really a team sport, though. It's actually every man for themselves.

But after a couple of years I started think about trends in how I did as a debater. I certainly won more debates than I lost, but I was not particularly dominant. My first thought when looking back was that I just could not beat anyone from Walter Johnson. This wasn't such a bad thing - they had the best debaters in Montgomery County, including the county champ (who I lost to by one point in a debate that I *knew* I had won. I got robbed.)

And then I realized something else, it wasn't that I was losing to every debater from WJ. It was that I was losing to everyone from there who was a girl, since the demographics of their team skewed very female. Then I realized that this seemed to apply to other schools to as well. And it hit me - I was practically incapable of winning debates against women. This was a valuable life lesson that still holds true today.