Rory Squire tops in forensics

It’s unlucky to bring more than one suit to a forensics competition, according to Madison County High School senior Rory Squire.

Repeating the exact same speech at every single tournament is another fortune killer for 18-year-old Rory.

And if she doesn’t have every single one of her lucky charms – which include a button, a circular metal coin engraved with the word “Win,” a Las Vegas casino token, an earring and a hair pin – in her suit pockets during a competition, she might as well not even go out on stage.

But even when she perfectly abides by her own personal superstitions, Rory is still overcome with extreme fright and nausea right before she goes on stage.
“Right before there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to get out of the speech… . But then it’s fine as soon as I start talking,” she said.

And the charms are there just in case her nervousness resurfaces and she needs to fiddle with something in her pockets to calm herself.

Although Rory – who has climbed to the top of the national high school forensics original oratory ranks this year – will often use the same topic throughout a school year of competitions at various events, she feels “cheap” saying the same stuff over and over again so always mixes it up a bit beforehand.

“I feel like it’s unlucky if I read the same exact speech so I change at least a little bit each time, even if it’s just a paragraph,” she said.

However, she admits that mindset has “definitely come back to bit me in the butt.”

She remembers having a total lapse of memory at a Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University competition and standing on stage silently for what seemed like forever.

“I saw this one person turn to the person sitting next to them and say, ‘What the [heck]?’” Rory recalled. “It was just a devastating feeling.”

Fortunately, Rory came to her senses and remembered the speech. She went on to the final round at the competition.

“It was so surprising,” Rory said of her win at Harvard her sophomore year. After that, she felt that people in the forensics circuit “starting paying attention” to her.

Her speech was about how commonplace little lies are within folks’ everyday lives.

“It was how we fib all the time…lies have become a part of our daily dialogues. We have a distorted sense of what is and isn’t acceptable.”

Since then, Rory has continued to excel at various nationwide forensics competitions within her category, original oratory, which involves the delivery of a persuasive speech authored by the student.

This past fall, Rory placed first at both regional and national tournaments, including the Yale University National Invitational and the St. Joseph’s University’s Villiger National Invitational.

Despite being ranked the No. 1 orator in the U.S., Rory keeps her view of her achievements in perspective.

“I’m lucky because I’ve done ‘well’ at it. But it’s not that big of a deal in the big scheme of things,” she said.

That doesn’t mean that the high school senior isn’t appreciative of all she has learned from the MCHS forensics program, which is the main reason she decided to attend public school here in Madison County rather than pursue a private education elsewhere.

Her experience with the team has boosted her confidence and communication skills with both peers and strangers.

“It teaches you so much about expressing yourself in a calm and direct manner,” she said.

Rory, who was recently accepted at the University of Chicago, is still deciding on what college she will attend this coming fall and what career she plans to pursue in the future.

“I think I want to write,” Rory said, adding that she’s unsure what she wants to write about or what publication she would want to write for.
“But that could change – I could wake up and decide I want to be a chef; maybe I want to bake cakes for the rest of my life,” she said laughing.