This is a post I've been thinking about for a while.
It's time to come clean.
Do you know what a "fangirl" is? You probably do. The Google defines it as "an obsessive female fan (usually of movies, comic books, or science fiction)."
What the Google doesn't know is that this doesn't just have to be movies, comic books, or science fiction. There are speech and debate fangirls as well.
You know what I mean. Don't tell me you've never "fangirled" or "fanboyed" over a fellow competitor, as they say. I can give you quite a few personal examples. See, my fangirliness doesn't just apply to one speecher or debater. That would just be a regular crush, not a competitor crush. I have lots of favorites.
First, there's this one interper I totally fangirl over. And even though he's my favorite in interps, he's also great in any other forensical thing that involves him speaking, which is luckily every event. He's got the kind of voice that you hear and go, "Whoa. Please do audiobooks or something because seriously your voice is like the sound of happiness covered in chocolate and skipping through Disneyland eating ice cream while Coldplay plays in the background." I'm not even kidding. And in interps, my gosh, talk about becoming the character. And his blocking was always incredible. He also often sang in his speeches, and his singing voice is just as good as his speaking voice. I am a hardcore fan of this guy, I won't lie. My friend is too, and she and I would fangirl over him together, and totally look like idiots but in the best way. One time, his mom told my mom that he was a big fan of my speeches and it was the greatest thing ever.
And then, of course, there was my favorite LDer. The one I was super in awe of who also terrified me. I might have accidentally told him that he'd been my favorite LDer for years, ever since I had decided that LD was cool, and yea, I guess my fangirl showed a little. He's always been one of those debaters that was right 100% of the time, even when I disagreed with what he was saying, because he was saying it, so it had to be true. His opponents were probably evil, because how dare they negate him? (I debated him once, and hereby admit that whatever I argued was probably blasphemous.) The tournaments he didn't win were clearly rigged. His arguments were brilliant, and apparently I saw him debate enough times to be able to recognize cases he wrote that I'd never heard before, simply by glancing over them, because I knew his style that well. True story.
I could go on, but I think I've sufficiently embarrassed myself. I could remind you of the time I geeked out when someone who had just won an event (and remains one of my favorite speakers/people ever) congratulated me on winning novice impromptu of all things. I could tell you about how this kid whose speech made me cry won a major tournament and I made him give me a hug and told him I was proud of him, because I was, and how I am such a big fan of that guy for so many reasons. I could tell you about how one of the most widely recognized Stoa-ites for his great speaking and humility remembered my name months after he judged me, and emailed me to answer my questions, and how special that made me feel. I could recollect the story of how one of my favorite Humorous Interpers ever got mad when my measly first ever HI didn't break and how awesome that was. I could even mention how excited I used to get when "famous" speech and debate people added me on Facebook, or Google+, as the case may be. I could tell you all of those stories about my fabulous encounters with the objects of my speech and debate affections, but I won't. I'm sure you have your own.
You're homeschooled. Oh, the feels.
