When words were scarier than pain

On Saturday, my father and I watched the race meeting that included the finals of the Inter Dominion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_Dominion). A trainer was mentioned with the same name as a bloke I went to junior high with. It triggered a memory.

At some point each year, as part of our English assessment, we always had to give a speech. One year, the debating team was selected based on the highest-scoring speakers. I was among them, as was the fella who may or may not now be a horse trainer.

But as I recall it there was an extra round of selection on top of the speech component. Possibly there were eight of us and we had to debate each other to determine the top four.

Anyway, I distinctly remember the day before the team was chosen, the chap in question was "packing it", as we used to say. He'd been fine making an amusing speech, but the thought of participating in a debate terrified him. He told me: "I don't want to be here tomorrow. I'm going to get into a fight at footy training tonight."

That's exactly what happened, and he avoided selection.

I'm sure if the teacher had only been aware of his desperation not to debate, they'd have excused him (and spared him a punch-up). It's weird how our minds work when we're young. How we won't speak up. How we'll suffer in silence rather than face an irrational fear.