Breaking (It's a Good Thing)

It's here. You know you've been waiting for this moment. We in the business refer to this time as "breaks." The stress level is, oddly enough, a lot higher than it was during the actual rounds, because this is the moment. You either make it or you don't. There's no turning back now. This. Is. It.

"Shhh! They're starting! What did he say? What event is this? Wait, stop talking. I can't hear. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh... I BROKE! YAYAYAYAYAY!"

It's a great scenario. We've all seen it time and time again and even experienced it. However, the word itself and it's various forms (break, breaks, broke, ect.) have always been extremely puzzling to me.

I remember watching a speech, probably about a week after I joined speech, and in the speech "breaking" was mentioned and I thought what? I realized that she was expressing a discouraging feeling she had at not "breaking," whatever that was, which seemed very odd to me. I then realized that breaking must be a good thing. It wasn't until my first tournament 4 months later that I learned that breaking means moving on to the next round and not hitting a baseball through a window or something.


You're homeschooled, and I hope you break.