Buying a New Suit

I remember way back before my first competition, even before my first Round Robin, the time came for me to get myself a suit. I had never needed tournament attire before. My mom and I trekked off to whatever store we had been advised to visit and found pretty much nothing of use, EXCEPT for this one rack that had these skirt-and-little-jacket suits on sale. They were pretty much adorable. I picked out my favorite, tried it on, and we went to pay for it.

Mom (to cashier): This is on sale, right?
Cashier: Well, actually...
Mom: freezes in panic
Me: also afraid
Cashier: ...it's on clearance.

You can imagine how big that sigh of relief was. I've gotten lucky with suits several other times too. But regardless, suit-shopping is just fun and exciting. A new suit makes you feel all the more ready for the next year. You try it on, straighten your tie, tuck in your shirt, fix your jacket, maybe add a snazzy pin, look in the mirror and think, yup. I'm ready to go win something.

Maybe it's just me, but I've always felt that my suits, and especially my tournament shoes, give me confidence, which, as you know, is helpful in speech and debate. Have you ever felt this way?

I've mentioned this previously, but it really does irk me that "Appearance" is part of the ballot. You can get comments about ridiculously silly things, like having a white hairband with a suit that is red and black and that that is apparently bad (true story). But much to my chagrin, those little box are there, smiling their toothless smiles at us after every competition. We may as well play that game and look nice and feel awesome. Haha, pointless little squares! We win!

What about you? Do you like getting new suits?

You're homeschooled and you look great.