The most common fear is not of sharks or spiders or even masked chainsaw wielding maniacs. It’s glossophobia. Also known as the fear of public speaking. When I first entered high school, I also had a fear of public speaking.

As any rational person with a fear of public speaking I avoided speech and debate like the plague. Right? Wrong.

For reasons I still don’t fully know, freshman me, who would always get sweaty palms and dry throats when public speaking was brought up, signed up for speech and debate.

One may think that I would be miserable in that class, avoiding tournaments and ddreading in-class performances. However, following the common idea that the best way to fix your fear is to face it, I went into the class ready to embrace my new career in public speaking.

And it worked.

I actually liked the class. Maybe it was the positive reinforcement of winning medals. Maybe it was the people in the class. Maybe it was the boost of confidence that it gave me. Most likely a combination of all three.

Debate created a community of support, where everybody is cheering for their teammates. Whether it was at a local tournament or at state and nationals, there was always a web of people cheering eachother on.

For me, with all the practce drills, in class performances and competing in font of random middle-aged parents at other high schools, debate helped alleviate my fear of public speaking. Now, I’m perfectly fine with public speaking, ranging from speaking to a single parent or performing in front of the entire freshmen class on their first day.

Debate isn’t perfect. It is an inherently competitive activity, it can be stressful, and there are still times where I get pre-competition jitters, but it is possibly one of the most beneficial extracurriculars to take.

While football or choir may end after high school or college, your public speaking ability continues to grow and develop throughout your lifetime. And it is necessary.

While it may sound scary to anybody who is enrolling in new classes, with a public speaking credit being required for graduation starting with the incoming freshmen of 2024 I urge anybody willing to openly embrace speech and debate.