Colorado College

     The past weekend the United States Air Force Academy Forensics Team traversed Colorado Springs to debate at the Colorado College. For the team, Colorado College launched a five week "adventure". This adventure is a juggling act between four weekends of debate tournaments and balancing the military and academic life at U.S.A.F.A. Despite the challenges, the beautiful Fall weather, and Halloween made the Colorado College debate tournament a great experience. 

     Colorado College is a great liberal arts school located 15 minutes south of the Academy in close proximity to downtown Colorado Springs. I didn't know how beautiful Colorado was until I left the austerity of government buildings and the cement laden Air Force Base. Away from the A.F.A this particular, weekend made the Victorian classrooms and lush courtyards of the Colorado College shine among the colorful Fall leaves. The fall/ holiday ambience of the Colorado College was great especially since we were smeared in debate. 

     After hitting several of the top 25 teams in the country we finished with a 1-4 record, but more discouraging, we were always in striking distance of winning. Our largest vice was clarity. The judges typically give a reason for their decision in choosing the winner of the debate round. The judges either missed our point completely or new what we were trying to say and told us that we were unclear, and those judges told us how to fix our arguments for the next time. I preferred the latter because it led to our win at the end of the tournament against another competitive team. My partner and I have been working to increase our clarity, hopefully we are successful next week at the University of the Pacific.

Halloween: A picture is worth a thousand words; therefore, a video is worth 1000^1000 words.

Academics: After the tournament, USAFA welcomed me with 6 G.R.'s and several assignments that I had to make up from the week before and ....