Londoner Forever

I’m still feeling good from the weekend, just having gone through Monday. This is extraordinary, given that Mondays usually leave me stressed, headachey and exhausted by the mere thought of the rest of the week ahead. Today I managed to wake up for breakfast again (I realize how pathetic it sounds each time I tout this as an achievement), went to the computer room to do research on abortion for my debate later in the day, took surprisingly coherent notes in my criminal law lecture, and sat through a two hour long seminar on self-help remedies in contract without falling asleep even once. And all this with a general air of contentment, minus the sappy smile.

In the evening, I spoke in the debating society’s weekly Monday night debate, proposing the motion (with Nick and Terry) that This House Would Abort Abortion. For one of the first times ever, I actually did give a damn about the side I was arguing for. I usually don’t have extremely strong opinions either way because I don’t think I’m qualified or informed enough to form them, but the pro-life cause is something I do feel strongly about.

I lost the debate, as I had expected. Most of our Monday night audience votes according to their individual beliefs rather than on anything that is actually said in the debate, and most people these days probably think that abortion is a right. They’re entitled to that belief. But I do wish I hadn’t been destined to lose even before I stood up to speak, simply by the side I was on. All the same, we lost much more narrowly than I had expected, and there were people who voted for us against their own beliefs, because they felt we had given a better case. I do feel good about that – it meant I had succeeded in my lesser aim of challenging the assumption that the right to abortion is a natural manifestation of a modern liberal society.

This was probably one of the most satisfying Monday night debates I’ve spoken in so far, apart from my first one ever, last year, when I did This House Needs More Porn – it’s funny how they happen to be two debates that couldn’t be more different. I could still improve on my Monday night technique, though. Russ made mention of veins popping out on my neck and too much gesturing with my left hand, which I seriously hope doesn’t look as bad as I imagine it all looking. But despite my inner cringe at the thought, I’m glad he said it, gladder that he stayed to watch the debate even though that meant he probably ended up eating dinner past ten o’clock, and gladdest that he voted in proposition, because he wouldn’t have voted that way if the case we’d put forward hadn’t convinced him.

Eep. I should really get started on essay-writing. All the debating in the world won’t convince UCL to give me first class honours if I end up flunking all my classes.

It’s been a while since I last wrote something here. Whenever I tried in the past week, I kept realizing that what I wrote would be essentially the same each time – a frazzled lament at my rapidly approaching essay deadlines, reluctance to go to the Cambridge debating tournament this weekend, and generally bad time management, all of which reinforce each other to create a self-perpetuating cycle of self-aggrandizement.

Which, if committed to this electronic page day after day on end, would be rather boring after a while, as well as unrepresentative of what I actually do with my life. More importantly, it would mean that I’d be spending time whining instead of actually correcting the source of my problems.

But! Today I feel good. I do have to get a start on the two essays on criminal law that were due on Friday (ulp), as well as the one on European Community law that’s due this Thursday (zzz), but I’ve had 12 hours of sleep, some good coffee (Aroma, Tottenham Court Road), and right now, all that doesn’t seem too depressing. (Note to self: this will change, Michelle. You’ll read this and weep a few days from now…)

The predominant reason as to why I feel good is the Cambridge IV, which I got back from last night. We came in 15th out of 72 teams, which is pretty good considering it’s a high-quality tournament and we hadn’t prepared at all. I also came in 15th in the individual speakers rankings. I guess I’m just really glad things went right for us for once – a few weeks ago, at the College of Law IV we were languishing near the bottom of both team and speaker rankings, despite speaking no worse than we did at Cambridge. In fact, I think I spoke better there than at Cambridge, which really calls judging standards into question, given that judges at the College of Law seemed to hate my speeches and judges at Cambridge seemed to like them.

The social side of things was markedly better as well. Being good friends with a number of the Cambridge debaters organizing the tournament came in useful in various ways, and the fact that they were all a)nice and b)pretty damn competent added to it. Having not had a proper conversation with Aaron for far too long, it was nice to finally get the chance to spend some time with him. Side note: I must be one of the most comfortably accomodated crashers ever. I’ve never had to sleep on the floor at away tournaments, thanks to lovely people like Aaron (Oxford) and Vikram (Cambridge) who give up their beds. I wish I’d seen Dennis giving his “Most Camp Speech Ever” performance in the semi-finals, but his rendition of it later was amusement enough. I’m going to be thinking about that and laughing for weeks, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, considering that this laughter often comes while walking alone along the street, or during a tutorial.

So. I’m VERY glad I went to Cambridge. I’m not stressed about the undone work. Tonight, I’ll put on some Pavement (I’m in the mood for Terror Twilight), and get a start on everything.

I am a happy person.