Say YES to Debate!

By Rahil Siddiqi, YES Abroad student in Sofia, Bulgaria, Program year 2023-2024

It is oft repeated that we humans are creatures of habit. As individuals who choose to spend nearly a year of their lives away from everything they know, those that call ourselves YES-Abroaders stand as great exceptions to such a statement. Admittedly, however, many of us find certain activities that we may have done back stateside that allow us a certain degree of comfort in such a fast-paced and fluctuant period of our young adult lives.

For me, in Bulgaria, that has proven to be Speech and Debate.

Ever since my time in middle school, Speech and Debate have been a formative part of my life. As someone who spent much of my early childhood as relatively quiet and reserved, S&D gave me the opportunity to channel my words in a succinct and professional manner, all the while gaining significant confidence in the presentation of myself and what I have to say.

When first arriving in Sofia, I was able to have a conversation with career diplomat and counselor for Public Affairs Jeff Weinshenker of the U.S. embassy in the capital. During the midst of our conversation, he introduced me to the BEST Foundation, a Bulgarian-based organization that organizes Speech and Debate tournaments in English.

Since then, BEST has played a large part of my time in Bulgaria so far. While only being involved with the foundation for a few months now, I have been able to speak with and befriend much of the staff, including the Executive Director. This November, I was sponsored by the foundation to travel to Sliven and help administrate the tournament, through responsibilities such as judging rounds. Back in Sofia, I am fortunate enough to have started up a team of our own at the First English Language High School to compete at upcoming BEST tournaments.

While coaching dozens of students can certainly prove to be a challenge, being able to see their hard work result in dramatically improved speeches and arguments is truly a gratifying experience.

While my time at BEST so far has definitely been filled with many great experiences, I am excited for the many more that are on its way during the second stretch of my year in Bulgaria. I look forward to heading our team at the upcoming regional tournament in February before attending the National tournament in April. I am also excited to assist in administrating the International Balkans Tournament through handling the newly established speech event of the tournament (and coincidentally, the same event I specialized in back home); Extemporaneous Speaking. Through debate in Bulgaria, I’ve also been able to make multiple friends in the activity, which has led me to a position of a Coach and providing support for the Bulgarian National Debate team.

Though there are many words that I believe can summarize my time involved in Speech and Debate in Bulgaria as we reach the end of 2023, I cannot help but think of the final round between the two remaining debate teams at the BEST tournament I judged at in November.

While the debate was surely a joy to witness and score, what I remember most from the round is its topic: “This House prefers a world where happiness is predominantly derived from random events over personal choices.” While I obviously did not let my personal bias get in the way of judging fairly, I cannot help but to reflect on the topic. Since I’ve been in Sofia, I have become a strong believer in preferring happiness being derived from our own personal choices over random events. For many of us, our lives in America became routine and traditional, meaning that our happiness often came from the redundant activities we pursued or the atypical random events that occurred. However, as individuals foreign to a completely new area, it is extremely important that we put ourselves out there and engage with our new community in order to garner happiness and satisfaction for ourselves. While this often involves doing something we aren’t entirely adjusted to, there is no issue in being involved in an activity you have experience in. And who knows? Perhaps taking such initiative will result in making multiple friends and memorable experiences to remember for a lifetime.