Topic: praise

When I was fifteen and possibly, in retrospect, a sort of adorable thing stomping around in ugly glasses and Payless heels and shouting about social contract theory, I won the state debate championship of Virginia.

It was a big deal at the time; the “nice” part of Virginia is up near DC, and some were quite offended that some girl from the hinterlands had upset the sociocultural order by taking home a trophy for excellent argumentation. More »