I’m nine years removed from four of the most fun years of my life. Yes, I may look like a high schooler now, but it was back in 2003, at North Central High School in Spokane, Wash., that I was forced out of my debate career thanks to graduation.

I remember those tournaments fondly. We’d head out every few weekends to one place or another for a day and a half of lively competition and fun.

Rounds were the best. So many emotions ran through me in the span of an hour: excitement, anxiety, amazement, relief and curiosity, among others. The only certainty heading into a speech or drama round was that you better be certain of yourself because judges were like sharks in the water, looking for blood (or in this case, any hint of a lack of confidence or ability). They were there to nitpick whatever they could in an attempt to separate first from last, and everything in between.

It takes a special type of person to stand in front of a group of strangers and deliver a speech, whether you know your topic better than you know yourself (expository speakers) or you have no idea what you’ll be talking about until the judges hand you the topics (impromptu speakers).

Aside from having that aforementioned confidence, you need to be a coherent, articulate and poised speaker and even then, there are no guarantees for first place. Sometimes, it takes near-perfection. Watching finals rounds back in high school, I didn’t know how judges could possibly differentiate between the performers. This weekend, I found out the hard way.

I volunteered to be one of the judges for this weekend’s Montana Class A State Speech and Drama Meet on Saturday, Jan. 28. I attended a judging clinic a few days prior for a refresher (actually, I wanted to know what to look for and where I had lacked a decade earlier). After a couple hours, I thought I was set.

I should have known better. After all, this was state. At 8:40 a.m., I was judging the pantomime event with six performers and was immediately worried. First of all, Spokane speech and drama didn’t have that event back in the day. Secondly, one of the aspects I banked on was an individual’s speaking ability. Well, mimes aren’t allowed to talk. So much for that.

Fortunately, I found enough ways to be picky to differentiate between the six very talented mimes. I anticipated not knowing what the heck I was looking at and I could award high placements to those who I could actually follow a little bit. Well, for the most part, I knew what happened for all six acts. It came down to the crispness of a performance, the actor’s enthusiasm and their very-specific expressions and gestures and how those complemented the action and even then, it was a close call.

As tough as that was, it was still only a preliminary round. After not being needed for the last of those rounds, I took a break and came back for the classical duo semifinals in the early afternoon.

And, wow. Even with my judging arsenal expanded to include speaking, it hardly helped. While one act in particular simply blew me away, the other seven were amazing, to say the least. The actors embraced their roles tremendously, rattled off lines near flawlessly in character and would have put Keanu Reeves to shame. And this was a semifinal? Seriously?

Just an hour after that round, it was off to the serious duo finals. I was warned beforehand that the topics would be heavy, which I wasn’t just prepared for, I was excited about. Don’t get me wrong, watching performances about concentration camps and suicide isn’t, by definition, fun, but it allows kids to really explore different emotions and challenges them to do something that might be outside of their usual comfort zone.

You wouldn’t have known it by looking at the finalists, however. The pressure of the moment and the big stage couldn’t even stop these people. They thrived on it. The best of the best came out in that round.

And there I was, having to tell seven teams that they weren’t quite as great as No. 1 and, worse yet, why.

“Sorry, I felt like the moment called for you to make more eye contact with your partner.”

“Your hands seemed nervous. Perhaps that was part of the character?”

“I thought there may have been a bit too much or just a bit less emotion than there should have been.”

This isn’t about my judging ability or lack thereof. Having to decipher between these duos by saying those things is a true testament to how gifted all of these performers were. Congratulations to them.

Saturday was a warm trip down Memory Lane for me, albeit a bit of a role reversal. Like back then, the day was a blast. And I’m glad this time I was in my seat rather than on stage, trying to impress a room full of strangers.

Especially considering the talent I’d have been competing against.