Maya Miller

This very personal story depicts the inner workings of my debate brain. I was a pretty rabid debater from the end of sixth grade, continuing throughout high school. And although I won middle school Nationals, was elected to the Team USA World Schools Debate Development Team, and was, at one point, ranked in the top thirty nationally, nothing about debate ever came easily. Yet debate taught me so much. A quiet child (that kid who never spoke in class), I’d always written stories, poems, and essays, but debate gave me the tools to assert myself—and, surprisingly, a blooming voice too.