The Argument

I prefer to settle my arguments with words and come to a peaceful resolution. But every once in a while I break this rule. This was one of those days when I started to lose my patience. My day was shaping up to be awesome: french toast for breakfast, a movie in french class, and a 96% on my math test. I couldn’t be happier! Until it all ended in socials class. That was the day we had a new class project. The task was to recreate the Canadian confederation; we were put into groups to represent our province and debate about decisions. These decisions would eventually lead to whether or not we would join together in confederation.

My group was to represent Ontario and Quebec; as the biggest provinces we were also given the biggest responsibility. The other provinces wanted us to handle everything but the biggest nuisance was Newfoundland. Newfoundland became my greatest enemy that day. All because of that girl. Just as I was the unelected leader of my group she was the unelected leader of hers. “I think Ontario should pay for it,” she would say or “this is what’s best for Canada.” Her whiny voice, demanding attitude, and complete nonsense was giving me a headache. The argument for where Canada’s capital should be lasted throughout the class. Before the vote could take place Newfoundland was saved by the bell as the block ended.

She hasn’t come up with a good argument for anything! Let’s put the capital in Halifax? Why would we do that? Why don’t we put it in Nunavut for goodness sake!

Alright. Calm down. Deep breaths. We won’t beat her thinking like this, let’s just wait until the vote and move on from there.

But she’s so… unpleasant for lack of a better word. She gets on my nerves like it’s her sole purpose in life. Whatever will I do?

The next day the argument started from where we left off and round two began. We entered the ring and by this time I was taking it seriously. Not just a battle of the wits but as a matter of pride. For if there is one thing I despise, it’s losing. Especially to someone as obnoxious as her. Luckily for me New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island backed me up and we won the first vote. Now we would vote on transportation. My problem was that while I wanted to pay for the Canadian Pacific Railroad she had other plans.

“How much will you be paying for the ferry system?” She questioned with a righteous tone.
“We will help pay but overall most of our efforts will go towards the railroad,” I answered.

Now we had her fuming. Her face was as red as a poppy. I thought that transportation would be my knockout punch that would get me the vote, but sadly the usually mellow Maritime provinces were agreeing with her moronic idea for us to pay more. I had made a mistake by underestimating her influence. This hit me like a quick jab right in the ribs, throwing me off balance. During a short recess, my team and I had to recover and replan. When we came back to the debate Newfoundland wanted us to pay for 40% of the ferry! This was absolutely insane! 40%! This was something that I couldn’t stand. To have the nerve to ask us to pay more than they were when they would be the ones using this ferry. So after some grumbling we agreed to pay for 30%. She was an opponent I didn’t know how to counter, a southpaw. Her reasoning was terrible but since she was trying to get a ferry that benefited the Maritimes they agreed with her. She may have won this round but there was still a few more left to go.

After a few more days of debate we got to the last topic, government. This was the day when we would vote on a Prime Minister. Personally, throughout this entire project, all I wanted was to become the Prime Minister, and today was the day of the vote. I was feeling so anxious as
I had worked hard to get to where I was. Our teacher came in the door after collecting the poll to tell us who the Prime Minister of Canada would be. With the suspense rising she said “And the Prime Minister is… Joel!” Victory! I was so happy to finally get what I deserved, to win. As the girl who led Newfoundland was the second highest contender for the position we shook hands and it felt so good to have won. I later realized just how much I put into this project and the desire to succeed was clouding my judgement. I learned a valuable lesson that week: when trying to solve an argument don’t let your emotions get in the way of coming to a peaceful resolution.

What I did well: I added an extended metaphor of a boxing match throughout my narrative. I wanted to put an image in the readers mind of a fight to symbolize what was happening.

What I needed to improve on: I need to improve my vocabulary and perhaps be more creative with my word choices when describing something or someone.