One Clap Speech and Debate
One Clap Speech and Debate is a resource for Speech and Debate coaches and competitors. We interview heroes of the Speech and Debate community about the transformative power of the activity and work to provide free and helpful content for Speech and Debate enthusiasts. Lyle Wiley, an English teacher and Speech and Debate Coach in Thermopolis, Wyoming, hosts the show.
One Clap Speech and Debate
Camp One Clap 2, Episode 9: Big Horn Besties Lindsey Walker, Lizzy Arcarese, & Lydia Maurhoff Talk Leadership, Camaraderie, and Overcoming Fears
6:9 - Camp One Clap 2024: Day 9
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Can you imagine facing your biggest fears head-on while thriving in the competitive world of speech and debate? Today, three talented members of the 1A/2A State Champion Bighorn High School Speech and Debate Team join camp: Lindsey Walker, Lizzy Arcarese, and Lydia Marhoff. We discuss survival skills in a post-apocalyptic world, with Lindsey humorously admitting she'd rather not survive, while Lizzy and Lydia jump into the dynamics of fear and leadership. Discover how these activities have fostered personal growth, confidence, and invaluable friendships for Lindsey, Lizzy, and Lydia. With humor, self-reflection, and shared passion, our guests provide a compelling and inspiring insight into the rewarding world of successful competitive speaking at a small Wyoming school.
If you’d like to join the discussion here at One Clap Speech and Debate, shoot me an email at lylewiley@gmail.com or reach out here on the website.
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Hey campers. We're surviving deep into the clapocalypse here at Camp One Clap. Here on day nine, we've been visited by Lindsay Walker, lizzie Arcarice and Lydia Marhoff a trio of talented bighorn speech and debaters who are here to share advice and inspiration for overcoming fears in performance. I'm your camp director and host of the One Clap Speech and Debate podcast, lyle Wiley. I hope that Camp One Clap has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for speech and debate competitors and coaches this August. Quick reminder check the One Clap socials for today's social media challenge. Thank you to everyone who's been out there engaging with the challenges. It's been a lot of fun. Let me take a moment before our interview to tell you a little bit about our guests here at camp today.
Speaker 1:Lindsay Walker is an upcoming senior for the Bighorn High School Speech and Debate Team. She's a 2A state champion for oratory and a two-time 2A state champion team member. While her main event is oratory, she has competed in extemp, impromptu and congress. She took the jump from athletics to speech and debate her sophomore year and couldn't be more satisfied with her decision. Lizzie Arcariz has been a part of speech and debate for three years at Bighorn High School. Her main events are duo and drama interpretation. In 2023, she qualified and competed in drama interpretation for the National Speech and Debate Tournament. She has also helped her team to two state championship titles in 2023 and 2024. She's going into her senior year and is excited to compete in her last year, once to give it her all.
Speaker 1:Lydia Morhoff is an upcoming senior on the Bighorn High School Speech and Debate team and her main speech events are duo and humor. She can't wait to bring some fun into the speech world and share some secrets of how to overcome challenges that come with the stress of speech. All right, strap in and get ready for my interview with Bighorn Speech and Debate stars Lindsay, lizzie and Lydia. Welcome to Camp One. Clap to the Clapocalypse with. Well, we've got. Lindsay Walker, lizzie Arcarice, lydia Marhoff Welcome all three of you. You're all from Bighorn. Thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited to talk with you. I've seen you all at tournaments. I've had an opportunity to see a couple of you compete. You're all fabulous and state champions this year and I'm excited to hear your perspective on some stuff. But before we get started talking about speech and debate, I want to tap into your fear. So yeah, lindsay, what's your favorite? Scary story, like a movie, a book, a spoken story what's your favorite?
Speaker 3:I love all horror movies, but when I think of a scary story, I think of elementary school, the scary stories books, and specifically the one with that one lady with the green ribbon around her neck and they're like she's never taken it off and then she's decapitated.
Speaker 1:she's gone no head or a head, but not connected it's pretty scary and I know exactly which story you're talking about, because it scarred me just the same as it scarred everybody else, I think because I just I vividly remember being on the playground and I I don't know if it was lydia, but someone told me it. I was like my god it still traumatizes you, to this day that's a core memory for me. Honestly just hardcore. So what about you lizzie?
Speaker 2:you got a favorite scary story not really lindsey's the connoisseur on like horror and like scary stories. I normally stay away from that stuff because I'm like not my damn but like I love like reading all the old like original disney stories that like are technically horror. I don't know if it's actually horror, but where Cinderella's stepsisters chop off their feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, original fairy tales went hard. They were not chill. There was no chill at all, yeah, good point, those are pretty scary, some of them the original Little Mermaid. Not a tale to tell your kids. I don't think some scary stuff. So, lydia, what is your favorite scary story?
Speaker 3:I don't know, I don't really listen to scary stories, to be honest watch horror movies together. What are you talking about? Yeah, my favorite I guess, the one that traumatized me the most was Barbarian for sure, oh my God, lindsay remembers Barbarian. It's not PG enough to discuss, it's like gory, it's horrible.
Speaker 1:Lizzie was not invited no. Lizzie wouldn't have been able to handle that.
Speaker 3:No, lizzie would have just died, I think, just like on the spot.
Speaker 1:Well, this will segue nicely into my next question, which is about your potential survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Speaker 2:So if we were?
Speaker 1:to have some sort of apocalyptic event and the world gets turned upside down maybe a zombie apocalypse or something like that, something out of a dystopian novel on a scale of one to ten. How likely do you think you would survive and do you bring any skills to the table in the event of the apocalypse? We can start with you, lindsay.
Speaker 3:Zero. I don't want to survive an apocalypse. Everyone wants to be the hero and not everyone can be Katniss Everdeen Fair. That doesn't even seem enjoyable. I barely like camping.
Speaker 1:Okay, so Lindsay's a zero. Do you have any skills that you'd bring to the table at the event of the apocalypse?
Speaker 3:I guess I could talk to people. You're very down to earth. You could definitely be like guys, let's not do that, because that would kill us. But people aren't going to be nice in apocalypse. But, they might listen to you I mean you've got a powerful voice. I'd listen to Lindsay in an apocalypse. It's like I could lead, I guess, but I don't want to.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, so definitely don't want to be in the bunker with you. Let's go to Lizzie. Lizzie, what about you? What do you think? What are your odds of survival? And then, what do you bring to the table?
Speaker 2:Probably like I don't know, a five. It's like 50-50. I don't know, maybe not a five, it's like 50, 50, I don't know, maybe not. Um lizzie would get glued on the first day probably. I have a thousand different allergies so it's like really easy to kill me like with, like food or like medicine.
Speaker 1:But like I also was a girl scout for 10 years, so like I have some outdoor survival skills oh, I mean, that's a fair mix and, you know, maybe will the survival just kick in in that situation. But yeah, the allergies could be a problem. Yeah, that could be bad.
Speaker 3:If you didn't have your allergies, do you think it would be better for you?
Speaker 2:I think it would still be a 50-50 chance.
Speaker 1:I think Lydia. Maybe Lydia's our best, best chance here. What do you think, lydia? Do you think you would have a better chance?
Speaker 3:well, I know, I know how to. I've like read a bunch of stuff about, like outdoor survival, so like I know, but I don't know if I could put it into practice. I give myself like maybe a five and a half.
Speaker 1:Five and a half.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's solid. It's like over halfway. I'd be like maybe, but like I don't know, I feel like I'd go insane.
Speaker 1:I don't think speech and debate. People are probably the most likely to survive in these kinds of situations like, at least not talking to the folks that well, not the people I've talked to. It seems like we're mostly talkers, not really hardcore hunters, foragers, gatherers. So all three of you, how did you? How did you get into speech, debate, what, what brought you in? What made you stick around?
Speaker 3:we'll start with you, lindsey it was a sports girly for five years of my life I would have. I made fun of speech and debate kids. I made fun of kids in theater. And then freshman year, my first year of high school basketball I hated it. And so sophomore year, I hated volleyball too that season. So I'm complaining to our coach, mr mr olsen, like during band class and he's like you could do speech and debate and that's an excuse not to do basketball. That is so embarrassing. But I did it and here I am you're not still embarrassed, right?
Speaker 3:only only okay okay, fair.
Speaker 1:What about you lizzie? What? How'd you get involved in this, uh, this terrifying universe?
Speaker 2:so I've heard about speech and debate since I was young, because my dad did it in college. So when he heard bighorn had a team, he's like you have to do it. I don't care what else you're planning on doing in high school, you gotta do it. So I was like okay. So freshman year I was brand new to big horn and I started it. And here we are I mean you're having a good time right yeah, and my dad's one of my coaches now, so that's quite the experience I'm sure it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, um, and from talking with your friends here, uh seems like it's never a dull moment.
Speaker 2:No, lydia and I convinced the crap out of Lindsay Join us in speech and debate. It was a struggle, yeah.
Speaker 1:But they got you, they got you.
Speaker 3:You get to hang out with us every week. It's like a cult.
Speaker 2:We are a cult, let's be so familiar. We are a cult.
Speaker 3:For sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:So, Lydia, are you like a?
Speaker 3:founding member of the cult. How did you get involved? Uh, so I joined my freshman year. I really don't know. I think I was like ian garrison was like I idolized him. I was like, oh my gosh, he's so cool, I gotta be in every everything that he's in. Because I wanted to be as cool as Ian Garrison. And so I joined and was not so successful.
Speaker 3:My freshman year I did drama. That was my only event. I didn't know how to act, so I kind of just spoke my piece. I didn't do well in any sense of the word, but it was just really fun. I was like, well, I get to hang out with a bunch of cool people and I get to like have lots of fun on the weekends and I get to like get away from everything for a little while. And so the rest is history. I did a duo with Ian Garrison, the king himself. I did two in a row with him and I just never looked back. It's it's such a cool experience and I realized, like this is something I want to be a part of for the long run, like this is super cool, and so yeah, so, like, let's talk about your events.
Speaker 1:We're kind of dipping into that a little bit already. But, Lindsay, what kind of events have you competed in? What do you like the best? What's your favorite?
Speaker 3:I've done. I did Congress once, a singular time, not a fan, not a fan, but I do Extempt Impromptu and Oratory. Those are my three.
Speaker 1:Sweet, all right, cool. You know that Impromptu is going to be like a main event this year, right?
Speaker 3:know, I heard that I'm excited because it's always, it's always like a gamble when olsen, when our coach is like they'll have it here, they'll have it at this meet, and I'm like okay, yeah, I think most teams will make a pretty solid effort to to have it now because it'll be a state event, so that should be good.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, um, what's your favorite?
Speaker 3:oh okay, I love it's between oratory and extemp. They're like my kids, because I did, I've done extemp. Oratory was right. Junior year was my first year doing oratory but I've done extemp since the beginning and I've worked through extents a lot longer. So I I feel a lot more closeness to extents, like a lot more pride to it, but I enjoy like performing my oratory more, my oratory pieces more.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, cool. What about you, lizzie? What events have you done and what's your favorite?
Speaker 2:So almost everyone on our team has been congress. It's like if you're new to the team, olsen's like congress, like that's easy, you can do it, no, so?
Speaker 2:no one ends up liking it, except gideon. Gideon has been the only person on our team that's liked to congress. Anyways, I've been in congress impromptu drama and duo and I think I loved my duo my junior year this past year because of my duo partner. If we messed up at all, we could get each other back on track and pick each other back up. She was the best duo partner. One time we messed up our whole piece and missed our intro and still got second in the round.
Speaker 3:I don't know how that happened, and I didn't even notice it watching so you just had dynamite chemistry with your duo partner?
Speaker 1:yeah, we worked really well together.
Speaker 2:and then drama, I think, is my favorite because I can pull out all the emotion that I can pull from myself and I qualified to nationals with that. So I think drama would have to be my favorite. But I love duo if I get a group.
Speaker 1:Cool, Cool. Well, what about you, Lydia? What are your events? I'm guessing you did Congress. Oh gosh.
Speaker 3:I was the only one who didn't do Congress. Pretty much I always had an event. I did drama my freshman year and then duo my sophomore and junior years and then I did humor this past year. I have a love-hate relationship with humor, for sure. I love doing humor. It's a lot of fun to do my piece, but I don't think I'm funny, so I'm like I don't understand why I'm doing so. Well, I hate this. This is weird and also humor is really a hit or miss with like the piece that you do. So it's really hard to get like a lot of like really really funny pieces, because there's not a lot of really really funny pieces out there that's what I think at least.
Speaker 1:So what do you think is your favorite then?
Speaker 3:duo is definitely my favorite. I love duo. But it was just because ian garrison and I have a lot. We have it's like lizzie and bella like got. We got the like stage chemistry that makes it like really easy to do a duo with this person. And also we're both like very, very committed, so it was really easy to like fall into the flow. But I'm nervous this year because I don't know who I'm going to do a duo with And'm so sad because my partner graduated.
Speaker 1:But it's still definitely a favorite of mine yeah, that is like hard, but it also means that there's exciting stuff in the future. You'll get to try it out with somebody different, so hopefully it's going to work out and you'll have a great time. Before we talk about overcoming scary things in speech and debate, which probably may involve trying to navigate a new duo partner for Lydia, I do want to take a spooky, ghostly interlude and ask you guys about ghosts in the paranormal. Are you believers? Do you think that ghosts are real? What do you think, lindsay?
Speaker 3:No, I feel like people are just kidding themselves. Like it's like for me it's like conspiracy theories can be fun, but like, at the end of the day, like you know, they're not real like and people who are really passionate about it actually piss me off because it's just so annoying. Off because it's just so annoying. It's like you'll never know how do I explain this. I'm never gonna bring up that I don't believe in ghosts, but if someone does believe in ghosts, you're gonna know almost immediately having a conversation with them.
Speaker 3:Like it's like, shut up oh my, maybe I shouldn't have started with you, l Lindsay, because now Lizzie and Lydia are both probably like well, I better not say anything, I'm only saying this because I have a family member who swears that the place he works is haunted and he has ADHD, so it's like maybe he just got distracted. That's my vendetta.
Speaker 1:Lindsaysey, that's horrible. Understandable, I guess. What do you think, lizzie? Are you a paranormal believer?
Speaker 2:no, not really. I have to agree with lindsey, but I'm not as passionate about it. I'm like I don't really believe in them, but I don't know how to explain all the weird things that have gone on in every single theater that I've been in. Like there's just weird things that go on in theaters. That's different.
Speaker 3:Theater. Ghosts exist. No other ghosts exist. I didn't know that was a part of this conversation. I didn't know our theater superstitions were being brought into this.
Speaker 1:An interesting turn, Okay. So what about you, Lydia? What do you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for me. Personally, I don't even know about any of the paranormal, I just don't care enough. I'm like, if a ghost is around me, cool, have fun, go crazy bro, but like I don't know, I just don't have enough passion for that to be like no or yes. It's like I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Lizzie Got it All right. Well, it sounds like not a believer group, nor a group that really cares about it all that much, except for, possibly, theater ghosts.
Speaker 1:So speech and debate, though, can be pretty scary. I mean, it's not easy to put yourself out there and perform and speak your heart to strangers and all that stuff that goes into what you do. So how do you overcome your fears and anxieties to excel in the speech and debate world? I want to hear some of your stories, like how you guys feel about fear, and how you can either use it in a positive or negative way. Uh, what do you guys think, lindsay? What about you? How do you overcome fears and anxieties? Are you, or do you just not have any?
Speaker 3:Like, oh, I have some, so let me tell a story. So I so I played. I played sports and our basketball season my freshman year sucked and I hated it. And playing a sport in front of people, I hated the feeling because I knew we weren't good All of that. So when I was transitioning to speech and debate, I was like, oh, this is going to be fine, like it can't be that bad. It was. It was my first extant round.
Speaker 3:I walk out and I'm like in my little heels and I'm like sniffling, as I'm like walking to our table. I ended up doing well, apparently that transition was very shocking to me. I do for nerves because, like my stomach gets all twisted. I've learned that sprinting in heels down a hallway really boosts your confidence, like because, like warm-ups before games for sports, like you, you warm up, you get ready. I started doing that in speech and then I also I also get sturdy in my heels and that's like a dance move You're not going to understand. Would you like to demonstrate? I mean no, no, yeah. So I do that. The higher the heel, the better. I think just heels in general make me feel better about performing. I don't know why. And then, as soon as I'm in front of an audience, I just black out honestly and I just do it yeah yeah, okay, well, I can't say that.
Speaker 1:I've tried running down hallways or sprinting in hallways and heels. Like I might have to give that a shot, see if it helps you, you should try it. What about you, Lizzie? How do you deal? You got any stories.
Speaker 2:I've been performing on stage since I was five, so I feel like that has really helped me like go into speech and debate and be able to perform in front of people. What's more scary is that they're right in front of you and not like in the audience where you can't see them. They're like right in front of you so you have like I make eye contact sometimes during my speech piece and like sometimes that messes me up, I don't know, I don't know. Sometimes I just have to forget that everyone's there and I have to look over everyone and just be in my own, my own world and like be in the place that my drama or my duo is. A really like hard part is like pulling into the emotion and like pulling it out of nowhere. So like I have to be in my own world, in my own space and not worrying about what other people are thinking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I do. You work really hard at like really immersing yourself into your piece and your characters and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I warm up with Lindsay, so that helps. We should, okay, sidetrack, but we share these. We share like, two pairs of heels that are like this tall, one's tan and one's black, but they're like tall. They're stilettos too, yeah. So the heel is like that thin and like that tall.
Speaker 3:Heels are important. The higher the heel, the more powerful I feel. That's our speech motto this year. Yes, the higher the heel, the more powerful I feel. Yes's our speech motto this year.
Speaker 1:The higher the heel, the more powerful I feel.
Speaker 2:We're the seniors, so we get to choose too.
Speaker 1:It feels to me like that would produce more anxiety, just because isn't it more difficult to walk around with high heels? I don't know, I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2:The only time I couldn't wear the high heels was during my duo, when we had to spin back and forth from each other. But other than that, they're fine.
Speaker 3:I give speeches. I just like I got the extent walk going. As long as I can walk a few feet in each direction, I'm good.
Speaker 1:You're not doing karate kicks during your extemporaneous speaking or anything like that Not particularly Maybe during impromptu.
Speaker 3:Maybe we should add that. Maybe we should add that.
Speaker 1:All right. So what about you, Lydia? Are you also a high heels person? Is this still your anxiety?
Speaker 3:I couldn't wear high heels all last year and it was so sad because I had to fall down in my duo and I had to kick people, I had to abuse my husband. Our team was traumatizing last year and I couldn't wear heels so it was really sad. But he did one meet and I scuffed him up so bad and I was never wearing heels again.
Speaker 2:But I'm going to this year, Even if my duo is violent, but she has higher heels than us.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna have the high heel experience this year, senior year.
Speaker 1:Gonna run back the high heel experience. Oh yeah, I can't wait to see the t-shirts, you know, with the heels motto. What was it again?
Speaker 2:The higher the heel, the more powerful I feel, the more powerful I feel, the more powerful I feel.
Speaker 3:yeah you all say in unison nice that's just us we're just like on a wavelength man yeah, I'm feeling that it's interesting uh, it's cool that all three of you are going to be seniors together too.
Speaker 1:that's exciting, uh. And yeah, like I am interested to hear about how speech and debate helps you in like other areas of your life academics and other performance activities and friendships and stuff, because I know all three of you are really successful in a lot of other things too, so does do you feel like speech and debate has an impact on other activities and academics and stuff?
Speaker 3:We can start with you, lindsay 100% For academics-wise, sophomore year is our first year in school where we have to actually perform speeches for people and it was after our speech and debate season, that unit and I remember everyone freaking out, everyone literally like I don't even know how to describe the terror in all of these sophomores eyes and I just remember getting up there and just word vomiting and it was the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. We were allowed to have note cards. I want to say that I didn't Thank you very much, but so there's that it's very easy in school to speak, and not even just speeches, but in collaborative classes when you're doing discussions all the time, I feel more confident, given my opinion, I know how to structure my responses, all of that better and it makes me sound more intelligent just to know how to speak For other activities drama it also really helped me out. State drama I don't do like performative events I do presentations for, like marketing and stage management. So for that season I had to speak and it was so easy because you have all of these stage managers who don't speak because they're stage managers Like, and that translated to me going to the International Fesby and Festival, national Drama, where I wasn't nervous to speak at this national level because I'm just so used to it, so I definitely would have not had that confidence if I stayed with basketball. So she did great, that's it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, so cool. Congratulations on that performance at the National Thespian Festival. That's what it's called, right.
Speaker 3:International Thespian Festival, the international the inter-ian Festival.
Speaker 1:The international, the inter-universe, the international.
Speaker 3:The multiverse, the multiverse, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, no, that's really cool. So it was international. There were people from all over the world.
Speaker 3:I don't know why it's called that. Was there I don't know I heard a couple people speaking different languages. I heard somebody speaking french. I heard a couple, maybe I don't know, that's just what it's called all the good stuff I'm not gonna minimize it, I will.
Speaker 1:We will definitely stick with international. I just thought it was kind of funny. It's like the galaxy wide.
Speaker 2:I like the multiversal.
Speaker 3:Yeah the multiversal.
Speaker 1:The multiverse.
Speaker 3:I like it, I love it.
Speaker 1:What about you, Lizzie? Have you had some good crossover with skills and speech and debate and other areas of your life?
Speaker 2:Something I love is just like the friendship and like the family. By the end of the season last year we had a lot of issues just because we had been with each other so much. So that always happens. But like I know, at the end of the day we can always come back to each other and be like I'm sorry, we're just a little tired, I love you so much. I'll text you in the morning like like I always know that I can have my people around me. Like because, like throughout the day I don't see like my people much because we're all in different grades and different um classes. Like I didn't have any classes with Lindsay last year, but like I think I had like two with Lydia or three. But like I know at the end of the day we can go to like drama practice or speech practice. Like every day after school we have something because we just cross right over into another, that I can just go see my people and like just like the confidence part helps to like with what Lindsay said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure it is neat to some great relationships, not just with your team but around the state and stuff too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I, recognize people like all around and like. I follow them on like, instagram and like. We comment on each other's stuff and like, but like we always like, are so excited to see each other when we see each other at meets and like we're really close with, like the East team, like a part of the East team and Riverton. We've had people that we know from Riverton.
Speaker 2:It's like having a hype squad, right Like having a international mult a hype squad, right like having a international multiverse hype squad yeah, and it's always so fun to see them and like catching them up on stuff and like, even if we're not in like the same, like class, like school class we can like like we still hype each other up what about for you, lydia?
Speaker 1:what do you think? Has it helped you in some different ways?
Speaker 3:oh yeah, speech in the basis helps me a lot because get really anxious when I try to talk to people.
Speaker 3:I'm not great at talking to people. These two know that very well from my freshman year when I like didn't know how to interact with people my age and then I did speech and debate and I realized, hey, this is kind of easy, you just kind of yap. You just kind of yap to them, and then they ask you and then you're like, yeah, and then it's great. And it also helps me get a job because I was like, yes, just yapping about my speech and debate experience. To my like, while in my interview they were like, oh, wow, oh, she's done, she's done lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of cool stuff. And then I was like, yeah, lots of cool stuff. And it also just helps me actually talk to customers because I'm in a customer service job and like when they make me mad, I just shove my feelings down deep because I'm like this is like in speech and debate when I'm real anxious for a run, you just shove it down and get through it.
Speaker 2:Amen, some good stuff If you couldn't tell all three of us are like D1 yappers, so it's good that you gave us lists or criteria of what we needed to say, or we would have gone off tangent, we would be here for four hours, if not for the schedule, the questions.
Speaker 1:Maybe you three should like start your own podcast. I would definitely listen.
Speaker 3:The only listeners would be you and us, because we're narcissistic and would be like I like how he said oh my gosh, we're so funny that's our toxic trait that we all think we're the funniest people alive. Yeah, I say that at least like once a day definitely helps with your that's good self-confidence.
Speaker 1:You know it's like self-affirmation, so that's good, all right, so okay, moving on.
Speaker 1:I guess I was gonna just mention you know, your school, bighorn, has had some really great teams in the last really six, eight years, like I don't know. Like I think for a long while since it started Bighorn's been really competitive, but the last two years back-to-back won A2A championships and that's really awesome. There were two questions I wanted to ask you about Bighorn. One like what are you most looking forward to in the coming season with your team? But then also, like you know, what's it like to compete in a small school? I mean, I'm pretty aware I work in a small school, but I think people might like to hear what it's like to compete in speech and debate in like a pretty little school, like that sort of setting. So what do you think, lindsay, what are you looking forward to? What's it like, you know, being in Bighorn?
Speaker 3:I'm um, I'm looking forward to being a senior and doing all this. First, because I don't know if I mentioned it on here, but I have a pretty open schedule my senior year. So I get to, I get to put a lot of my time towards speech, towards our musicals, towards drama, and I'm excited to be able to have that level of time to truly lead, especially being a a senior. I'm excited to be able to help the freshmen, help the sophomores and be the mentor that I always wanted, or that Ian Garrison was Shout out. I'm very excited about that. I'm not trying to think of ways that I'm going to change. I don't know how to describe that. I'm just going to do what I know what to do during the season, but I'm excited for what I can do outside of competition and towards our team, for our school competing in a small school.
Speaker 3:I don't want to badmouth any other activities, but it is very difficult to garner support Just simply because it's hard. It's not a spectator sport, it's not a, it's not something that they can easily understand and help out with, or you can't understand unless you're in the room with us, kind of thing. So it is hard getting support from students and even fellow teachers, because they might have good intentions but it doesn't feel that way sometimes. But with the small school, like I mentioned, like our drama, our musical team, we're all the same people. So, like Lizzie mentioned, with the relationships and friendships you make tenfold because we are all together, because we do the same things. It's not just one activity that's pretty cool, pretty special.
Speaker 3:Um also probably get kind of tired of each other at times, but you know I don't know what your team does, but our bus rides back from the tournament silent way there. We have music blasting on the way back. We don't speak because we just are dumb. We're like social interaction is just. You hear like tiktoks in the distance, but that's about it in the distance yeah well I mean, I think, I think that sounds like a pretty universalist experience.
Speaker 1:I think people, people get kind of wiped out on each other and just social battery winds down. Yeah, but yeah. What about you, lizzie? What are you looking forward to this year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm looking forward to help people put in the work towards it Because, like my freshman year, I was like, meh, this is just like something extra we can do.
Speaker 2:But then, like, after we saw that we could put in the work and like do well, because we saw Ian Garrison and another senior that graduated a couple of years ago that they almost made it to nationals, were like we want to do that.
Speaker 2:So, like I want to help put that spark and other kids that want to put the effort in because, like I know that, like my freshman year, I was like, but like I want the spark to start early for them. Just like because, yeah, like I don't, I wish I had the spark my freshman year so I didn't have to like start putting in the work my sophomore year in like only three years, uh, yeah. And like helping them find good speech pieces because, like it can be really really hard finding good speech pieces. And another tip to Ian Garrison he was the best at finding speech. Okay, he was like our best team captain like ever. Like yeah, so like he found the best like pieces for everyone. So like I know us three will be able to work together like really well, um, and find pieces for the younger ones that don't know what they're doing quite yet.
Speaker 1:Lizzie, is there anything you want to say about competing in a small school? Oh yeah, have you enjoyed about it? Like what's different about it?
Speaker 2:So this okay. So some people like Lindsay said people oh word, vomit Okay. People doubt us a lot and like people don't think we can like do what we do well. So like being able to like show them what we can do well, like getting state championships like me, ian Garrison and Matthew Alvarez made it to nationals last year like being able to show them all the accomplishments that we have done and will continue to do is like so rewarding just for like our team and not being like stuck up or anything, but just being like hey, we are a winning team and we are something worth looking at and like something worth putting your support into, even if you can't always see it not to name names, but we have a state championship and your sports team doesn't, so sorry.
Speaker 3:A lot of politics.
Speaker 2:Yep, it is a lot of politics because it's a small school and it's like that's another fear of ours, like not really performing but like being like bashed on. I guess is like a fear every year of like oh, who's gonna talk about us now?
Speaker 3:like who's gonna yeah our speech fears aren't really speech fears aren't really in speech itself. It's yeah, everyone else, I don't know external communities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just the politics of scary school and like our community is great, but, like in the school, we have issues and it's like I don't know how to help you.
Speaker 3:But and with like and we do it's. I don't think a lot of people are intentionally being ignorant or mean, but it's like with some support it does feel backhanded simply because they don't make the effort to understand. So it's a weird dynamic where I feel bad. I don't want to villainize these people because they don't understand, but also it just doesn't feel genuine sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you want to be real too. I mean, if you feel that way, the only way things are going to change is if it's communicated.
Speaker 2:So like it's a tricky thing and watched all our events, even though some of our pieces are a little harsh on topics, and he was just the best principal and even though some of the other faculty wasn't always the best supporters he was always there for us and he spoke up for us.
Speaker 1:That's awesome to have administrative support. It's a big deal and a lot of things you're talking about our culture.
Speaker 2:so hope maybe things can change, maybe things can get better yeah, that's another thing I hope, like us three can do as seniors is like change the culture a little bit, because, like we got it. We're big girls normally we only have like one to two seniors, but like now that we have, I feel like we can be a lot louder, especially since us three can speak up a lot more.
Speaker 1:Like, if you want to know our opinion. Yeah, if you want to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you want to.
Speaker 1:I'm shocked that you're saying that right now. It's not been my experience talking to you three at all. Okay, let's let Lydia get a word in edgewise here. What do you think? What are you looking forward to this year? What's it like competing in Bitcoin?
Speaker 3:I'm looking forward to just seeing what events I'm going to do, because I did two events last year and that was fun, but I'm looking to do more because, like I don't know, I've got to expand my horizons, I'm a senior. I I don't know, I gotta expand my horizons, I'm a senior. I might as well try something new you know that's something I'm looking forward to and just kind of like being able to have the experience of being a leader.
Speaker 3:Because, ian Garrison, I really genuinely look up to him and like I'm excited to just see what he saw essentially and like it. I'm excited to just see what he saw essentially, um and like competing in a small school. There, we'll go to that one. That it's. It's a whole new experience. It's like it's weird because people don't expect you to succeed because you are a small school.
Speaker 3:They're like oh you're small and a lot of small schools struggle to get in and actually get their name out there, and now that Bitcoin kind of, has gotten their name out there, we have a target on our back and it's just about like keeping the team big enough that you can do a multitude of events and get and be successful, while also keeping it small enough to keep it feeling like a community and not like, oh, we're just getting people, because we need bodies like keeping it close but also successful. It's a really hard balance and we struggled last year, for sure, with like balancing the success and the culture and like everything like that.
Speaker 2:but I think this year, I hope this year we will have a better like bet with that, because we kind of know how to deal with it this year and kind of how to like balance everything and like going on with, like culture and like the balance summer is always our balance like we can always like choose if we want to hang out all together or like take a step back and like take a breather, because it can be a lot when you're with the same people doing every activity, yet together for nine months well, I'm excited to see what happens for you three this year and I think Bighorn's going to be in for another really successful, awesome year, and I appreciate you being here to help us navigate the clapocalypse, even though all three of you are probably not great in the actual apocalypse, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:I'd like to close out. Sorry, do you feel called out by that, lydia? I'm sorry, you know. I'd like to close out. Sorry, do you feel called out by that, lydia? I'm sorry, you know, one can learn.
Speaker 3:That's fair. Who knows?
Speaker 1:Well, I was including myself in that. I don't have any skills. I'd be a zero, so I'm not useful. I'm a good eater and that's probably a bad thing. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Not a good thing, but it is scary, like public speaking. We talked about this a little bit Like for the general public. I mean, a lot of people would rather die than approach a microphone in front of a bunch of people and public speaking is a very spooky thing for people. So why is speech and debate worth the terror, the horror, like? What do you guys love about it? What makes speech and debate worth the terror, the horror, uh like?
Speaker 3:what do you guys love about it? What makes it worthwhile? What do you think, lindsey? Um, it's so scary at first, but I get the absolute, such, a, such a high after performing. Um, I've talked about this a few times these two, but when I come out of an extent round especially because extent is so like 30 minutes you do this, you do this, you perform like it's new. Every time After I perform and I do even somewhat good I feel on top of the world. I will walk out of a round, walk up to Lizzie or Lydia and go I'm better than you, I'm better than everyone here. Walk up to Lizzie or Lydia and go I'm better than you, I'm better than everyone here. And not even in like a and I don't even mean it in like an, actually like I'm performing better than you, but I am, like, mentally better than everyone, like on that level. So for me, like it's like an addiction. Like everyone talks about runners high, I get a speech high.
Speaker 1:Like it's I don't even know how else to describe it it's cray cray that's, that's something, and like that, that level of confidence it gives you is like awesome. What about you, lizzie?
Speaker 2:um, so I have a fear of sports. So, um, my fear is not public speaking, I'd love to talk. I will talk for like us three. If you put us in a room, we've been up until like 3 am just talking us three, so like we will just talk forever. But like horror story, uh, in like fourth grade we were playing like a dodgeball game and I wasn't really paying attention and I got hit in the face with the dodgeball or like. It was like one of the kickballs, it was like the fat kickballs. I got hit in the face and like fell back and I got a concussion. So like, from then on I don't want to play sports.
Speaker 2:So I do speech and debate and I love talking and I love just being able to act and do something that is out of the box for me. So like I do drama, that like, and I pick a piece that's like nothing related to me at all so I can like do something new and I can just express someone else's story. Both times I've done like both my dramas. I've done sophomore and junior year. We figured out towards the end of the season that they have been true stories and then I end up crying because they're like I picked the most horrendous stories, like I don't mean to, but like they just fit. Like mmm, trauma, like mmm, let me just trauma dump on you real quick, oh God, and then I'll walk out of the room. I'm like, hey guys, like how's it going? So I'd rather get up and speak in front of a bunch of people than have to like kick a ball or hit a bat or whatever you do sounds like you're just kind of predisposed to this world.
Speaker 1:It's just kind of a good world for you, so that's cool. Yeah, what about you? What about you, lydia? What's, uh? What are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 3:okay, I have really bad anxiety. So when I go up to perform I'm like I'm gonna throw up, I'm gonna throw up, I'm gonna throw up, I'm gonna throw up. I literally like every time we would go to perform our duo, I would tell ian garrison what if I throw up? What if I pee my pants? I'm on stage, what what if I passed out? I will say the most random things like what if I die while I'm performing, like mid-perform, but then when I get up there, completely black out, I don't even remember performing. And then I get down and I'm like like shaking so bad.
Speaker 3:I don't know how I deal with it. I just kind of don't. I'm kind of like, yeah, and also every morning, every morning, without fail, jay will be sitting down at breakfast, lizzie's dad and I'll come up and I'm like super tired. So I look like dead and I go I'm going to quit. I'll tell him every single morning I'm going to quit. And he goes you quit, go ahead, have fun. And I go, okay, and then I go perform. And then I never quit because I love speaking to me. But it's just become a ritual at this point where it's like if I don't say I'm gonna quit, I'll probably fail, so I just have to might actually quit, like I might actually quit if I don't say it. I just kind of deal with it by by yapping about the most random things. What if I throw up on you while I'm pretending to hit you right now?
Speaker 2:There's a story of Lydia performing and she started off her junior year piece, her humor, by going Hello. And last year I don't think she ate breakfast and she went hello.
Speaker 3:I'm here today and she's like I went to speak and just nothing came out of my mouth. I'm like gosh, so that's why I go. What if I throw?
Speaker 1:up. Wow, I'm thinking about how bored Ian is going to be this year not getting a chance to work with you on the regular. I'm also wondering Lindsay Lizzie how many times do you think you've heard Lydia say I'm going to quit?
Speaker 2:Over a million. It's like without a doubt she like gets off the bus, she gets up in the morning, she gets out of a round literally anytime. She'll be like I'm done, I'm quitting oh my gosh well, and then if it's out of, if it's right out of a round and she says that she ends up getting first or second, without a doubt. And we're like Lydia, maybe you should quit Sounds like it's maybe a good luck charm.
Speaker 1:Better not stop, so you should probably quit this year.
Speaker 3:I should probably quit. Not really, don't really quit, I don probably stop. No, lindsay, not really it's superstition, don't really?
Speaker 1:I feel like donuts. Thanks so much to Lindsay, lizzie and Lydia for doing the podcast here at Camp Unclap. We had so much fun and it was some great stuff that they had to share. What's going down at camp tomorrow? Well, tomorrow, dear friends, shall be a day of rest. I still have some social media challenges that I'll post for tomorrow, but no released podcast content. We'll be back with content on Sunday, though. Oh, and this weekend, if you happen to have a vegetarian zombie over for dinner, don't forget what they most like to eat Grains For Camp One Clap. This is Camp Director Wiley signing off.