Describe a Competition You Took Part In

The competition that immediately springs to mind is a regional debating championship I took part in when I was around seventeen, still at secondary school. I'd never thought of myself as a natural public speaker — if anything, I used to dread standing up in front of people — so signing up for it was completely out of character for me. But my English teacher really pushed me to give it a go, and I'm so glad she did.

It took place over a full Saturday at a large college in the city, about an hour from my hometown, and I remember the atmosphere being surprisingly intense. There were teams from maybe fifteen or twenty schools, and the corridors were packed with nervous-looking students clutching their notes. My school entered a team of four, and we'd been preparing for weeks, meeting up at lunchtimes to research arguments and practise our rebuttals against one another.

In terms of what we actually had to do, in each round we were given a motion — something like whether homework should be banned — and, crucially, we didn't get to choose which side we argued. So you might personally agree with something and then have to argue passionately against it, which is genuinely hard. We had roughly fifteen minutes to prepare, then we'd deliver our speeches to a strict time limit, and, worst of all, respond to questions on the spot from the opposing team and the judges. There was no script to hide behind, so you had to think on your feet and keep your composure even when someone was picking your argument apart. We were also being scored not just on our points but on how clearly and confidently we delivered them.

As for how I felt, honestly it was a real rollercoaster. Before my first speech I was absolutely terrified; my hands were shaking and my mouth went completely dry. But something just clicked once I started talking, and I somehow managed to rise to the occasion. We didn't win overall — we came second, the runners-up — but I walked away feeling this huge sense of achievement, because I'd done something that genuinely scared me and it had gone far better than I'd expected. My teacher told me afterwards she'd never have guessed I was nervous, which meant the world to me.

Looking back, that competition probably changed how I see myself more than almost anything else from school. It taught me that being nervous and being capable aren't opposites — you can feel the fear and still perform well. And it gave me a taste for a bit of healthy competition, which I'd always shied away from before. To this day, whenever I have to present something at work, I think back to that Saturday and remind myself that I've done far scarier things and survived.