Asking For a Copy of the 1AC

This is a digital recreation of my flowpad and a sticky-note containing Cross-Ex questions in my not-as-long-ago-as-I-tend-to-think days as a TPer. A 2N, in fact, who, as the 2N, would ask the 1A questions in the Cross-Ex following the 1AC so her partner could madly scramble for arguments. You may have a suspicion as to where my priorities seemed to lie. And guess who almost-always remembered to ask for the 1AC?

My partner, as I was sitting down after forgetting AGAIN despite the red arrows, stars, exclamation points, and additional note-to-self. Of the 24 rounds we did in competition, I might have remembered 3 times. Maybe. I feel like that's a generous number. (and yea, apparently this sort of thing is a theme with me)

However, despite my tendency to forget to ask for the 1AC, I was always happy when one of us remembered because it can be pretty helpful. You know, when you're listening to some wacky plan and you're thinking things like, "What? Is that really what they're advocating?" or maybe you notice something weird like, "There was no evidence under any of these advantages." or maybe your mind is buzzing with 2,059 DAs and you're trying to determine the 4 or 5 you'll have time for and you're so busy thinking that you totally miss an entire argument. It happens. And you lean over to read your partner's flow and of course he missed it too. This is when asking for the 1AC comes in handy. Just fill in the blanks during the next speech or prep time. Easy.

Additionally, it gives you the chance to evaluate evidence and sources. "Aha!" you say. "The 1A intentionally mispronounced the name of their solvency advocate, so I didn't catch before that he is the man largely credited as being the most uncredible man on earth! I'm so glad I remembered to ask for a copy of the 1AC and got this brilliant argument!" or "Aha!" you say. "There's a whole non-underlined and therefore not-read section of this card that explains why everything in the underlined section is false! This is beautiful! I'm so glad my amazing partner remembered to get a copy of the 1AC so I could see this!" It's moments like this that make it all worth it.

Recently, as you may have detected, after a season-or-so in TP I switched over to LD (meaning I either joined or left the dark side depending on who you ask) and GUESS WHAT YOU GUYS. They hardly ever ask for copies of the 1AC AC there! I mean, I guess I kind of already unconsciously knew that, but still. Why this is the case is beyond me. Maybe because there are less evidences to evaluate, solvency advocates to utterly smash, or subpoint taglines to miss. Maybe. I don't know.

Moral of the story is, as is so often the case, don't be like me. Be more attentive. Ask for a copy of the 1AC because... because, why not? It will only benefit you. Or it won't. It can't hurt, right? I mean, paper cut maybe. But yea. It's worth it. That's why we like doing it, after all.

You're homeschooled. I'm pretty sure, and I didn't even have to ask.