The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

2016 Composition Contest Winnners 35 student debated their respected subjects, I considered the humorous case my partner threw together. When I heard the applause fall to a slow silence after the finish of a classmates debate and my teacher rustling through his papers, I knew we were next to go. “Jack and Cody.” The reading of our names signaled that we were to take the floor and prepare for our debate. I looked over at my partner as he slowly grabbed his few papers, shifted his weight in his chair and slowly strained to push himself out of his seat. Good move, Jack. Between the arrival at our podiums and the official nod of our teacher, signaling to begin, we suffered through the awkward several seconds of what seemed to be 4 billion eyes staring us down in pure silence. I made the occasional eye contact with the previous debaters, cute girls, and my close friends whom I shared an involuntary smile with until we both looked away. Finally, my teacher looked up from his pool of papers and gave the all-powerful nod. I took a deep breath, glanced at my notes, turned to my classmates and began. “In the past year,” I began my organized and beautiful debate. As I was discussing and analyzing facts and stories, I looked over at my partner and noticed an odd site. I don’t know how I missed it before. He stood there in his usual manner, leaned back, scraggly hair, and clearly his mind somewhere other than school. Good move, Jack. But one thing was different today than any other day. Today, he wasn’t wearing his normal skinny black jeans, skater shoes and skull-covered shirt. Today, he was dressed up. Not in a suit or even tie, but in a polo shirt, khakis and hair relatively groomed. Compared to any other student it was unimpressive, but for him this was new. Good move, Jack. Puzzled I advanced my case, presenting my flawless case for why the legal driving age needs to be changed to 18 years of age. As I concluded my side with a catchy finishing line and dare for Jack to try and challenge my thinking, I grinned knowing I had to simply sit back and watch as he struggled to comprehend, let alone respond to everything I discussed. His job at this point was simply to rebuttal with a concept of his own in contest to mine, then leaving me one last response before we switched roles for him to plead his side. As I said my final words and took a step away from my podium, I began to slowly organize my papers from the rush of brilliance I had beautifully presented to my partner, my class, and my teacher. Jack looked up, finally realizing it was his turn