Sometimes the things that help you most in life are accidental.

When I was an 8th grader, my older cousin was on the high school debate team. It piqued my interest, and I spent the next 7 years of my life connected to the activity.

Here are just a few of the things debate taught me:

• Comfort standing up in front of people, even when you are scared (almost especially so).

• How to research. I can't tell you how many weekends I spent, pre-internet, in a library scanning shelves and pulling documentation for arguments - hundreds at least. I even learned how to use law libraries when I was able to get access. It's insane the amount of research we would do on any one topic.

• The value of preparation. If you are more prepared than your opponent, it shows in your results (and the risks you’re willing to take that others might not be).

• How to prepare and structure arguments. After researching, laying out and structuring arguments and anticipating responses are some of the things you do the most.

• Quick thinking. In debate, you definitely learn to think quickly.

Some people learned similar lessons from solo sports, team sports, or any number of activities, but debate is definitely something that shaped me.

Sometimes I say that being one of the only engineers on the debate team explains a lot about me - I still believe that in some sense.