Speech and Debate POI for 2025/26 Year

This below is my POI I am going to preform for next speech and debate year! If you don't know what a POI is, this maybe be sort of confusing, but basically these are excerpts from media smashed together to play something resembling a play with a strong message beneath it. The ONLY part of this that was written by me is the Introduction of the speech! 

Spilled Milk, Baby.

Virtuous Cycle= Red

I, Tonya= Blue

Mothers who Cant Love= Yellow

Im Glad my Mom Died=Pink

Mama needs a little girl to land on

Mama needs a little girl to fall in her arms

Tonya’s my 5th child from husband number 4. She was always a handful but I loved her and I guess we spoiled her. Which is a goddamned hat trick when you haven’t got shit your entire life. Still. I drove her to competitions and practices. I sewed her all her costumes. But to her, her mother’s a monster. To hear her tell it, I would operate on her daily without anaesthesia. One fuckin’ time. I hit her one time, with a hairbrush. Terrible, scum sucking, loser! A child sometimes need to be corrected. All she does is talk about skating. All day, all night. I can’t make her shut up about it. So it’s easier puttin’ her on ice if you know what I mean. We figure with the right training she can make the most of her gift. Like Ice Capades maybe one day or something. 

My mother never told me I was good. Skating did. A child automatically wants to love their mother. But mine was bat shit crazy. I didnt ever know what went on in that head. I just thought— that’s life, you know? 

INTRODUCTION:

I cannot describe how impactful the mother-daughter relationship is with mere words. Studies show that this bond will have more impact on a girl’s future self-esteem and social skills than any other relationship in her life. We know our mothers by their laugh when we haven't even left the womb. We know their touch before we even open our eyes. Children with emotionally unavailable or immature mothers walk eggshells around their homes. For them, childhood is defined by neglect and abandondment. They endure a constant silent rejection that cuts to their core. This neglect becomes normal to them, shaping their future where they will forever have a gap innside of them where a mother’s love should have been. Using Mothers Who Can't Love by Susan Forward, the movie I, Tonya, I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy, and Virtuous Cycle by Jack Stauber, comes the program Spilled Milk, Baby. Women who were unprotected as children don’t believe they are worthy of love—on an unconscious level, they believe that if they were, their mothers wouldn’t have allowed them to be hurt.

END INTRODUCTION:

Tears fall down my cheeks while I drive home, trying desperately to process everything. Laura suggested that Mom was abusive. My whole life, my entire existence has been oriented to the narrative that Mom wants what's best for me, Mom does what's best for me, Mom knows what's best for me. If Mom really didn't want what's best for me, or do what was best for me, that means my entire life, my entire point of view, and my entire identity have been built on a false foundation. 

We met in an ice rink where I was practicing. I was 15. I was there 8 hours a day, skating. I don’t know what he was doing there. He was really sweet in the beginning. He was a good kisser. He told me he loved me. And I believed him. But then… he started hitting me a few months in. Then he’d say it’d never happen again. But I figured my mom hits me. And… she loves me. He was the first boy I ever loved. The only catch was he’d beat the living hell outta me. I thought I deserved to get hit. Women do that for the most part. Think its their fault. I mustve done something wrong to make them wanna hit me… punch me… love me.

Love doesn’t make you feel terrified or lost or alone. It doesn’t punish you for no reason, or berate a little girl for acting like the child she is. What you’ve been describing isn’t love. Realizing that your mother couldn’t love you is one of the most painful discoveries you’ll ever make. You deserved to be cherished, but your mother was a disturbed, unhappy woman who took out her frustrations on you. And it wasn’t your fault. A little girl who was criticized or ignored or abused or stifled by an unloving mother becomes an adult who tells herself she'll never be good enough or lovable enough, never smart or pretty or acceptable enough to deserve success and happiness. Because if you really were worthy of respect and affection, a voice whispers inside, your mother would've given them to you.

Dear Tonya, I am so disappointed in you. You used to be my perfect little angel, but now you are nothing more than a little SLUT, a FLOOZY, ALL USED UP. And to think—you wasted it on that hideous OGRE of a man. I saw the pictures on a website called TMZ—I saw you in Hawaii with him. I saw you rubbing his disgusting hairy stomach. Add that to the list of things you are—LIAR, CONNIVING, EVIL. You look pudgier, too. It’s clear you’re EATING YOUR GUILT. SICK. I raised you better than this. What happened to my good little girl? Where did she go? And who is this MONSTER that has replaced her? You’re an UGLY MONSTER now. I told your brothers about you and they all said they disown you just like I do. We want nothing to do with you. Love, Mom (or should I say LAVONA since I am no longer your mother) P.S. Send money for a new fridge. Ours broke.”

Mama needs a mama's girl to take good care

Mama needs a baby girl to hold her hair

TONYA They want a wholesome American family? It’s not gonna be easy. But I could pull that outta my ass. 

LAVONA Shit. I know you don’t expect me to wait on you.

 TONYA I don’t expect a thing, mom.

 LAVONA Well aren’t you a little hot house flower. 

TONYA I’m training for the Olympics anyhow. 

LAVONA So what do you want from me? Money? 

LAVONA You’re a taker. Every cent I made went to your skating and you took it. What do you want? TONYA Well this was a stupid fucking idea. Was anything I ever did good enough for you? Did you ever love me? Or anything even? 

LAVONA You think your mother loved you? Poor fuckin’ you. I didn’t stay home making Apple Brown Bettys. No I made you champion! Knowing you’d hate me for it. That’s the sacrifice a mother makes. I wish I had a mother like me. Instead of nice. Nice gets you shit. I didn’t like my mother either. So what? I gave you a gift.  

TONYA You cursed me. You’re a monster. 

LAVONA Spilled milk, baby.

I looked for the sunniest spot I could find, but you know it was the damnedest thing—it sure looked like the sun and it was bright like the sun, but there was absolutely no warmth coming from it. And this wave of sadness came over me—the sun was just like my mother. The healing process kicks into gear with the words “This is what you did to me.” If you were that little girl, the daughter of a mother who couldn’t give you the love you needed so much, it’s likely that much like Tonya, you now go through your days with a cavernous gap in your confidence, a sense of emptiness and sadness. You’re never truly comfortable in your own skin. You may not trust your ability to love. And you can’t step fully into your life until you heal that gaping mother wound.

I take a longer look at the words on her headstone.

Brave, kind, loyal, sweet, loving, graceful, strong, thoughtful, funny, genuine, hopeful, playful, insightful, and on and on…

Was she, though? Was she any of those things? The words make me angry. I can’t look at them any longer.

Mom didn’t get better. But I will.