When I was a kid, Victorious was my favorite show. Growing up, I wanted my high school experience to be like that. Over a decade later, I realized how unrealistic and theatrical the Nickelodeon show was compared to actual life. However, there are particular sentiments from the show that I didn’t know was realistic until joining the school’s Speech and debate team.

I want to be clear: there are parts of the show that are not relatable, like having sleepovers at their teacher’s house, being forced to go on a date with someone at the risk of receiving a failing grade or performing on national television.

However, The show follows a group of kids throughout their high school experience, pursuing their prospective talents and their crazy teacher, Scowitz. The show shows them and their triumphs, tribulations, and their efforts to succeed. Through it all, their teacher was an acting coach, friend, and biggest supporter. Although the gang faced many conflicts, external and internal, their passion and friendship carried them through it. I can attest that these elements of the show couldn’t be more real.

I’ve watched an easy elective class transform into a team from sophomore to senior year. I’ve watched as Mr. Lange, our coach, fully immersed himself in giving us every opportunity to succeed. As someone who’s never been into sports, I’ve got to learn and experience what it means to be part of a team. Apart from something greater than myself. Part of a whole.

I’ve watched as my teammates found themselves through different events. Although we all started relatively in the same place, we have found a home in Debate. It’s captivating how our president and vice president, Francis LaRocca and Colin Ford, have made World Schools Debate their passion, and seeing the amount of effort and energy they put into every case is incredible. I witnessed firsthand our interpretation captain, Majd Afaneh Conquer, the interpretation section with such determination and grit that is truly inspiring. As an upperclassman on the team, seeing members younger than me, like Hifza Mazhar or Ismael Alobeide, embrace domestic extemporaneous speaking, an event I started in, is truly surreal, and it gives me great satisfaction being able to assist them in any way I can. However, they don’t need it because they’re that good!

Even with all the success, each of our members and the team as a whole has accomplished, I don’t think there’s a single member of the team that hasn’t had a rough patch in debate at one point. It is a competitive sport, and whether it’s plateauing in a particular event or facing challenges within the team, being a team member has taught me valuable lessons about loss. As Taylor Swift once said, “Losing things doesn’t just mean losing things; when we lose things, we gain things too.” Even in Debate, Taylor is right. As many wins as we’ve all had, we’ve also had some pretty devastating losses. Being in Debate, I’ve learned not to wallow in losses but rather take them in stride as it’s just part of competing and life. Knowing to not, as coach Lange put it, “choose to be upset.” Rather, take a moment, reflect on it, and let it go.

It is the losses we’ve all faced that make the wins that much more significant. One of my favorite memories from this year, and maybe Debate in general, is coming in first place in this year’s Grand Oaks tournament for sweepstakes. That was a great moment for our team and showed us all the power we have when we work together because that wouldn’t have been possible without each person there.

So, even though I would much rather go to Hollywood Arts than Kingwood High School, I am forever grateful to KHS for giving us a team and a place to become victorious.