In which we feel, shall we say, a sort of longing

I was talking to CP and telling him that I felt kind of bittersweet watching NatNats from afar. It overwhelmed Twitter, if nothing else. The thing is, no matter how you slice it, NatNats is not for us. It conflicts with mandated exams and, for seniors, graduation and/or proms. Over the years I’ve qualified a bunch of people who’ve immediately backed out, and more often than not been unable to get people interested in the first place, given the hoops they have to jump through. (Not to mention that, for me, it’s fairly impossible to attend, as I don’t have the time off from the DJ, but that’s a personal issue that can be gotten around.) And of course, the Sailor situation is little different from everyone else around here. So I get this warm glow of a feeling emanating out of Kansas City of “The Best in the Nation” and so forth and so on, and not to take away anything from anyone who was there, but New York is not necessarily going to be able to send its best every year, or at least not all of its best. And with the school calendars being about the same for the entire northeast, nor is anyone else around here. In my eyes, it’s the Best in the Nation, but with an implied asterisk.

I would like to have a valedictory event like this one that we could attend. My brief against the organization was not anything that it did (aside from its heinous fees when I personally didn’t attend), nor even suggesting that it try to accommodate our small portion of its membership, but merely that they never acknowledged our reality. To them, it was as if we were deliberately trying to be non-participatory. Which is why I ultimately gave up. The thing is, when you have a menu of national events to choose from, including national finals, you choose the one(s) that make sense to your situation. This one never has, and probably never will. And, as I say, I miss that particular opportunity. I miss sharing in that warm glow.

So it goes.

Now everyone is toddling off to camps (although, yes, our school is still in session). Which makes me wonder, sometimes. How many camps are there, anyhow? How many people go? Are these $ircuit-specific businesses? Or does the vast majority of the teaming millions of forensicians attend one or the other? I have no idea, although I’ve always supposed that for the most part it’s for circuit hopefuls. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wonder if everyone I know is just too circuity for me, given my marginal interest in traveling far and wide just for a high school debate tournament. I mean, at the point where you have to get on an airplane, I begin to wonder if we’re not overdoing it just a wee tiny bit (except for big national finals, which is a different thing altogether). But the VCA knows well my thoughts on all of this, which haven’t changed in ages. There’s probably no point in continuing to harp on it. There’s worse things than selling your soul to debate. I’ve just always thought that there were also better things.