To dive back into blogging (for myself, and also for my classes), I signed up for the Slice of Life Writing Challenge along with a few of my favorite Gateway Writing Program folks. What I failed to realize about the start date of the challenge was that it coincided with:

• National Speech and Debate Day,
• National Kolache Day, and
• The first day of our district tournament debate series.

So not a busy day at all.

It isn’t entirely wrong for me to start writing about slices of my life while I sit in this middle school cafeteria, though: debate has been a part of my life for the greater slice of the last 12 years. From competing in high school to coming on board as an assistant coach when I was a brand new teacher, somehow or other, my Friday nights have often been spent in strange high schools with stranger (and yet still very good) company.

My job tonight as head coach means getting our lone competitor out the door immediately after the 2:50 bell, with debate cases, snacks, and tub of essentials in tow; getting our team safely to a neighboring high school even in Friday afternoon traffic; eating too much chili and drinking too much caffeine; and then arbitrating rounds of competition among other schools, even as their coaches judge for mine.

Though it’s been the long end to a very long week, I spent the 6:30 round watching high schoolers argue about the merits and challenges of immigration, and the 8:00 listening to them weigh the ultimate goals of the US criminal justice system.

Even 12 years later, sitting in these rounds amazes me. These students voluntarily spend their weekend doing what many of us actively avoid: engaging with tough issues and listening to people whose viewpoints differ from our own.

That’s pretty cool.

And even though it’s 11pm on a Friday night, and I will be up far too early tomorrow morning to do it all again, that makes it a worthy First Slice of my life for this month’s writing challenge.