How debate changed my life?

Hello everyone.
As I said before, I am going to share with you on how debate changed my life. If you still do not know the starting of my journey in debate, you are welcomed to read my entry about it (click here to read).

Debate changed my life by making me more confident to speak in public. This is because during the competition, I need to deliver my arguments and refute the arguments from the opposition team in front of the judges and audiences. Seriously, we cannot expect how many audiences would be there. There will be more audiences during final round or when the debate involves the host.

Besides, I became more active in extracurricular activities. Previously, my life was all about study and targeting for As. The main reason I did not really join extracurricular activities is because I scare I cannot balance my study and the activities. The activities also more to sports which I do not like. When I joined debate, I think that it is an activity that really suitable for me. Then, I also joined other activities such as Nilam and innovation which required me to speak as well. At that moment, I realized that I prefer extracurricular activities that required me to speak instead of moving a lot.

Debate also helps me in my study. I got an opportunity to improve my English. I can practice to speak English with my teammates. Since I did not live in the city and difficult to find people who can fluently speak English, it is difficult for me to speak English outside of English class. I did not see the effect when I still study at school because our main language is Bahasa Melayu but it helps me to survive in university as my university uses English as the common language. I became more confident and brave to speak English with others. I can learn the vocabulary from books but not the courageous. It also helps me to answer questions that involve common sense and applications (not a direct question) in university.

Apart from that, I obtained new knowledge about many topics as I need to do research before any competition. I have to read more and choose which information that relate with the debate topic. I cannot expect my teacher to give all the arguments but I have to put my own efforts. Sometimes it helps me to correct what I wrongly understood before.

Other than that, debate give me chance to make new friends. Most of my teammates were not in the same class with me so there were a lot of new things that I learnt from them. Actually, I am more close to my debate teammates than my classmates as I spent most of my time with them even until now. Sometimes I can release stress and take a break from talking about study because usually we would talk about our debate team.

Although I am a quiet person, but I enjoy speaking for debate. Probably because it helps me to talk about something informative instead of talking nonsense. Maybe some people would think that joining debate is the same like joining other extracurricular activities but not for me. I do not think that I will get the same knowledge, experience and impact to my life.