arguendo, omnibus formosior

It's been awhile since I looked up my name in the Google. And this evening, out of boredom, I Googled it up in a different combination: my first and last name only. To my surprise, it listed the page from smoothtournament.com as its first result. This is definitely a good change.

As far as i can remember, the last time I Googled up my name was in 2005, when my friends at astronomy got curious. It was pretty embarrassing, I don’t know why. Perhaps it's the way those journalist and reporters wrote about me, the whole 'from zero to hero'-thingy, simply because i came from a little town where science, let alone astronomy Olympiad is no-one bothers. However, during the course of the events, I was not special; in fact I merely go with the flow. This is why i never listed that achievement as The One.

Rather, I’m more fond of debating, where it's not a one-man show. Naturally anti social, I was forced to forge a solid group; hence the socialization. And to some extent, it worked. The little clique that I formed at high school with several others may have its origin traced to debate. And the ESL breaking, as much as I like to downplay it, I bear it to certain significance.

However, it should be noted that I’m not the star, and even in debating I have had my ups and downs. My initial participations surely can be categorized as downs, where i score a persistent no-good-single VP. It changed at NED, with Wiliam and Ella as my teammates, we broke the single-VP curse. In retrospect, I can see the miserable result as a learning point now. But it was not until AUDC that we come to a relatively stable performance, which can be classified as ups. Breaking to AUDC EFL semifinal, ITB double break at JOVED, breaking to semifinal at PIMNAS, advancing to grand final at CMDC, and lastly, breaking Worlds ESL Octos.

While content with that list, there's one undeniable fact: I always had the best teammate in the pool. As demonstrated by being in a team with Uphie 5 times, who constantly grabs all best speaker awards in sight, and Aino (4), who had endured zero VP at her first tournament with me. Special note also goes to Tyson (3), Wiliam (3), and Ella (3), all three of them were the best available in 2005 debating pool. There are also numerous others who helped in the practice, to list them here for the sake of my debating track record will be simply demeaning. This also applies for my training buddies at high school. I humbly thank you all.

As for now, adjudicating IVED grand final does mean something, and if any of you seeking an interpretation of it: I will cease my activity in debating, limiting myself in coaching and adjudicating, and concentrating on the very thing that brought me to ITB at the very heart: my academic life at astronomy.

I thank you.