Reflective Essay: La Familia

La Familia

“Oh, Godfather, What can I do? The debate contest big shots are giving me nothing. I have no prizes, respect or any kind of reputation! Oh, what can I do, what can I do?”

“You can stop being a pu$$y and act like a MAN! What’s the matter with you? Is this what you turn out to be? A weeping debater who can’t even make it to the breaks? What is this nonsense? Ridiculous. You spend time with La Familia? A man who does not spend time with his family can never be a real man. Come to practices. Prepare more than others. Be proud of La Familia. I want you to be more diligent. And in a month from now, this debate big shots gonna give you what you need.”

“Thank you, Hyungseok. I’d do anything for La Familia and for you, Godfather. ”

When I first watched the movie Mario Puzo’s Godfather, I thought of our school’s English Debating Society. From the structure to close companionship, the two have many similarities. Because EDS has to go to many debate contests and compete with other schools, it is almost always in a combat form.

Let me explain the structure by comparing it to the family tree of Corleone Crime Family. On the top of the family tree, there is the  Godfather, now Naan Cho senior, in succession of Michael Hyungseok Kim. Under the boss, we have the underboss who advises and replaces the boss when the superior is absent. After that, we have several caporegimes that lead smaller sections of the family. Usually, debate teams are composed of three people. So caporegimes, who are usually sophomores who have more experience in debating take lead in team along with two soldiers. Soldiers are freshmen who are inexperienced. 

But there are times when the boss or the underboss cannot take care of each teams. When such times come, the caporegimes or soldiers have to be on themselves. During the first semester, I spent a great portion of time coping with the tough practice schedules of EDS, and watching how Sophomore Michael Hyungseok Kim in 15^th wave successfully lead the family: arrange schedules, undergo conflicts with other clubs, and negotiate with contest managers who are usually arrogant and not cooperative.

But then came summer vacation, and Hyungseok had to go to United States. Since his term had ended with the start of the vacation, we had an absence of leadership. Because he was the captain who did loads of work during his time, we felt some difficulties in arrangements for the Asian Schools Debating Championship that was during the summer vacation.

And the results for our team were pretty disastrous. We didn’t make it to the top 16teams, making it hard to compete in the final rounds. It was first time in my debate career to not make it to the finals, and everyone in our team was depressed.

But then came a call to our team from the committee that we would be able to compete in the finals. They said one team was disqualified, and we were next in charge. The finals were to be started the day after the announcement of the break teams, so we went home happily.

The next day, Seoul was flooded with the downpour of rain that had never occurred during the close 30 years. Everywhere it was flooding; on the road with rain, in the subways with people. But anyhow, we managed to arrive at the conference center where the competition was to be held.

We asked where the debate room was, and the committee told us that we had no debates.

They said there must have been some kind of misunderstanding solely by from our side, and insisted that we should leave immediately or watch others compete. This made me very angry. We came through the downpour of rain, endured biased adjudications, underwent many delays, and this was what the committee gave us.

If it were for other countries, this would not be much of a problem. I would have issued a complaint, the committee would have apologized, and that would be the end of controversies. But we live in Korea. In Korea, most competitions are run by a limited group of people, and those people are usually ones who allocate prizes and evaluate students. Not only that, because committees of various contests are closely related, it is a dangerous thing to object to their decisions or even to their mistakes.

But still, I felt insulted. I had many resentments piling up. I was angry at their arrogant behavior, sloppy arrangements, biased adjudications, and most of all, their attitude. In this case, it was clearly their fault that we had to come through the flood only to do nothing. I wanted compensation, or at least an apology.

The leading caporegime of our team disagreed. She said I might be on their blacklist or at least be recognized as an uncooperative person, and that it would be critical for my future debate career. My freshman teammate thought so as well. Since there was no captain to make a go-ahead, it was up to our team whether to fight over this matter.

If I just let go of this just like other teams, then the same thing would be repeated over and over again. What I wanted-what was most important for me- was a guarantee that no such things would happen ever again. I wanted the committee to respect its guests, or at least our school. So despite all the objections, I made my point to the committee.

Although things didn’t turn out to be so great (in fact, I had to make heated and ugly quarrels with authorities of the competition) nor succeeded in getting concrete compensation, I did win an apology at the end of the day. My cellphone became iron-hot, my throat went hoarse, and maybe I did get on their black list, but I was proud of myself. I felt like crossing the threshold. It was a small incident with a small trouble, but I learned what it was like to represent La Familia and fight for them.