Everything I Need to Know

I Learned in Forensics

By Jeff M. Davis, NJFL Coordinator

Forensics is a program that offers more than simple competition. It offers life skills. It teaches students the abilities and lessons they’ll need to make it in the ever-more-competitive world out there. Forensics is, in many ways, a microcosm of life. You spend MUCH more time being taught and refined than you think you need. Then you’re nervous when you finally have to go use what you learned, because you’re afraid you might fail. And in time you learn that it’s important to keep working at it, to do better and better, until someday you can pass your wisdom down to those who will look to YOU as a leader and authority. And you’ll all travel together in a van or bus.

Some lessons are universal, but some can only be learned through forensics. And here those lessons are:

  1. Mountain Dew does not have the same nutritional value as sleep.
  2. Don’t take criticism personally: Use it to improve.
  3. Someday you will just have to work until you break. Then, congratulations!
  4. No one will talk to you for more than ten minutes. It’s nothing personal.
  5. Argue with someone like crazy for anThen go grab lunch with them.
  6. Judges can’t sentence you and Congress can’t really change anything.
  7. Nuclear war WILL happen. If we accept YOUR argument, that is.
  8. People who talk to themselves or talk to the walls aren’t crazy.
  9. People who talk superfast aren’t always selling cattle.
  10. Do not apologize when you flub something in a speech.
  11. Someone just performed a compelling story about how her dog just died, her sibling ran away from home, and she was diagnosed with a terminal disease. No worries, she’ll be fine again in an hour (after the round was over – remember, it was just a performance, as compelling as it may have seemed!)
  12. An old man, a girl, a lion, a mad scientist, and a tree can all look uncannily like a boy in a suit.
  13. If someone walks in a strange pattern- pay attention! It means they’re saying something important.
  14. If you’re ready to speak, smile.
  15. If someone else is speaking, smile and nod.
  16. When accepting an award, smile.
  17. When a teammate is accepting an award, smile.
  18. Six a.m.? Wow, you slept in this weekend!
  • Do you have additional lessons to suggest? Visit our Facebook page and post them to our wall.
  • Print