I just realized that i have been debating regularly on this site for almost 1 year.

When i started i must say i had a very high opinion of my own debating skills. I really had no doubt that all would be swept away with my amazing knowledge, my linguistic abilities, well constructed arguments and flawless logic.

How wrong i was.

My chagrin was, some would say, quite amusing to behold. But i was left humbled. For several weeks i stopped debating as i dealt with my anger at alias' prejudice, my frustration that people couldn't see it my way, and my sadness at how difficult it was for others to drop their animosity. It was singularly depressing.

I am a pretty overpowering fella in real life ( theatre lungs give me pretty awesome decibels ). As a result i more often than not tended to squash opposition simply because i spoke louder and faster. And for the life of me i could not understand why the hell everybody wasn't agreeing with me and patting me on the shoulder thanking me for my brilliant analysis and simple solutions.

I was humbled. And boy did i need it.

Almost a year hence i see how lucky i was to meet REAL opposition. Opposition that did not back down or accept defeat ( even when i thought they ought to). Opposition that attacked me for my background. Opposition that could spew rhetoric as well as i could. Opposition that possessed an ability to deny truth even when it screamed them in the face. And indeed opposition that displayed the fact that rational thought and logic can lead to infinite conclusions.

But that's just life. In life you meet people you love, people you hate, people that anger you, disagree with you, insult you, support you, villify you. You meet people who simply don't have the same points of reference as you do. People who do not see the world through your eyes and pity you because you do not see it through theirs.

In trying to deal with all that on this forum i have learnt a LOT. Apart from a great deal of factual knowledge i have been given incentives to learn more about many things. I have learnt patience in the face of opposition. I have learnt that patience and forgiveness truly ARE appreciated ( maybe not overtly, but it's there) by those who witness it.

But most of all i have learnt that humanity and human opinions spreads across an infinite spectrum and to for me to think that i knew everything or that my opinions were the only ones worth anything was plain hubris.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for teaching me