I didn't expect anything special from that day. I was following my usual routine. I arrived in school at 7:45 am, well before my lectures and even most of the staff. The common room was empty at this time and my goldilocks spot was waiting for me at the corner by the window. Everyday I sat there because after a while I started to lose connection from reality. The goldilocks spot provided just the right conditions to form a miniature world just for me. My own personal bubble. A bubble of peace and tranquility. A world with population: just me. A world not plagued by conflict, starvation or disease. A bubble of exclusion from normal life providing me with a chance for reflection.
But then suddenly, the bubble burst ,my miniature world ended and it wasn't even the end of the Mayan calendar. The debating society entered through the doors of the common room led by their menacing society head Saba. They broke the environment of serenity and repose replacing it with a cacophony of loud discussion regarding capital punishment; the topic of the day. They didn't even notice me and kept on arguing and maybe that's what I wanted. To not get noticed. To not get involved. To just let things slide.at least I thought I did, until she asked at the end if anyone had something left to say.
Something happened at that point. Maybe I wanted to break my Shackles of shyness. Perhaps I wanted to finally stand up for something in some way even if it was just an imaginary bubble. Either way this was my chance and I took it.I stood up and said "yes, I’d like to".
"You? Please do”, she said condescendingly, Inviting me over for their amusement it seemed. She didn't know it but at that point I had already killed her twice in my mind. Once through decapitation and second through lethal injection. So I was clearly going to speak in favor of capital punishment, against her position. But I was going to do it lacking any real knowledge about the subject prior to that moment let alone experience arguing about my position(which didn't exist 5 minutes ago) to established debaters.
My cerebrum went into hyper drive. Diving deep into my memory, it amassed any bits of information relevant to my argument. I felt invigorated Standing in front of them stating my position. I was convincing, conclusive and untouchable countering their every effort to prove me wrong. I felt like a Gladiator standing victorious, in the middle of the Coliseum having slain every blood thirsty beast released by Saba to kill me, using my intellect as my sole weapon. At the end both the crowd of the Coliseum and the society members erupted into applause. I had won them over.
In-between the bubble bursting and the applause, I went through a metamorphosis. Transformed from idle pacifist to triumphant Gladiator. I’m not sure if I took a step to discover myself that day but I sure did take a step to create myself.