Extreme.

Two words that describe my day today; busy and productive.

I woke up at 7AM to review and further prepare for my debate in class. I spent time to go over the notes I took the night before of each court case that pertained to our plan and each potential counter-argument our opponents could possibly have. The thing about me was that I was going to be the second speaker so I could not prepare a speech, I just had to be ready for the unexpected. That meant I had to be the most prepared in regards to our team and have studied all necessary information to ensure our team's success.

We had a total of two debates today, and our team went second. For the first one, I served as a judge along with the other students and listened to the arguments of both sides of the first case. The argument revolved around the constitutionality of denying a child to have a passport with the birthplace "Juruselem, Israel" intead of simply "Jureselem." Aurea was one of the speakers in this debate and she argued that It should be legal to deny the allowance of the birthplace to include "Israel" as the country because the true "ownership" of the city is still under question and the city is of world-wide importance in respect to faith. Therfore, in order to avoid future debates and tension with foreign countries in response to the passport decision and by also symbolizing that the city belongs to Israel, the president can deny the family's right to the name change. Their opponents argued that in fact, the family have the right to chose the name of their birthplace regardless of this situation and it's not an argument of right or wrong, the argument revolves around the rights specifically promised to the individuals of this country. After each of the 6 minute speakers were done, us judges casted our anonymous votes and chose the team we thought should win the debate. In the end, the opponents won.

At this point, I was really excited to just get up and approach the podium, simply ready to begin speaking. I love debating! I'm a senior member on my school varsity policy debate team and I have a very strong passion for what I do. I've been dedicated to policy debate for my entire high school career and I'm also interested in continuing to participate in college. So the fact that we had to debate in class really made me so excited from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning. By the time I was walking out my door, I was as confident as can. Yet still, I knew I was up for a challenge to go for the right of privacy on school grounds after a potential threat. Now despite the challenge, long story short my partners and I won by a very large margin. We presented ourselves to 13 individuals at the podium sitting at the head of the conference room packed with people. We endured the 13 eyes that were surveying us endlessly, the brilliant minds that criticized our every point, and the questions at the end given by a successful law student, our peers, and our professor. We emerged victorious from all of it, and we won the debate. It was a really fun session today, and whether I would have lost or won, I can truly say I would have enjoyed today the same regardless. It was a very interesting debate for all teams present and a very engaging activity that allowed us to learn in a more interactive manner. Later that day professor Porwancher asked me, "How did you like today's debate." Without hesitating I quickly replied, "I absolutely loved it."

For the rest of the day including my lunch break, I spent my time working on my research paper. I spent 45 minutes eating with my friends, and for the hour and fifteen minutes I had remaining until class started in the library, I simply arrived early and worked diligently on my work. I wanted to stay after class was over as well, but I did not have the opportunity to do that since we were scheduled to meet with the director of the Columbia High School program. She was such a charming, sweet lady and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to meet her. She spoke to us about the tremenously positive reputation of excellence the students of the Ivy League Connection have had throughout all of her experience as well as a lot of other aspects in regards to our experiences, the city, and Columbia University. We had the opportunity to even take a picture of her right after our meeting, but unfortunately I did not have my camera with me at the time. Adrianne did, however, take a picture for us with her camera.

Right after our meeting we visited Low memorial. Let me tell you that the inside is just as beautiful if not more than the gorgeous exterior of the building. There, Mrs.L said her farewells before departing to the hotel and allowing us to proceed with our daily activites. Today, I personally decided not to attend any events at all and instead work soley on my school work. I dedicated this day only to work in hopes of productivity. I did in the end succeed with this goal because right after Mrs.L left us, I quickly ate dinner and went to Butler library for the remainder of the day. Only near the end of my intense research and study session did I take a very short break to get quickly get ice-cream with a few friends from Pink Berry right across the street from the University. That was my only break and maybe the least productive part of my day. Regardless, I fully enjoyed my day and I'm satisfied with the scope of the work I've been completing. Just a little bit more to go and I'll be done with my research paper!