Olievia Martins, a member of Clearwater Middle School's debate team, describes her experiences at the most recent debating competition:

It was disappointing. We lost against MSA. My stomach rolled, and I felt it was entirely my fault.

I was the one who had to take their words and turn them upside down. Yes, it was I who was the first speaker. I was supposed to make a good argument and open our case.

It was extremely hard to even look at my team, to hear what they wanted to say, to see what they thought. I was ready to give up. I cried and wanted to go home.

That was until my mother stepped in. She took my frown and turned it upside down.

She helped me to find my confidence and pride. I was ready to hear what they wanted to say, and surprisingly it was good.

We were confident and were ready to take our lead. Unfortunately it was too late, at least for this debate. We had lost.

The experience in the first debate caused me to question my purpose for being here, but with the support of my family and teammates, I now felt like we could conquer the world.

We walked into the room like we were the best. What can I say? "We Are!"

The speaker stood and introduced me. I was shaking and hoping it wasn't showing on the outside. "The Motion on the floor today is 'This House Believes that education in the western world should be a privilege not right.'

"We as the proposition team strongly agree with this motion."

There it was; yup I said it, and after that, the words kept flowing out of my mouth like water. We won that debate and the one after, and the best part was that we deserved it.