When we arrived in Shreveport, all of us were exhausted but so excited to be there. We had orientation where we got our first look at other teams. I think that is when it all hit us that we were about to compete against some of the biggest schools in our district. To name a few: Texas State, TCU, OU, OSU, Texas Tech, UCO, Texas A&M and many other schools. I know the jitters of being there for the first time was a lot for all of us. That night, we had watched the first three competitors go, two of which were so-so and one which was really good. This kind of put into perspective that no matter how hard we worked, other schools probably had worked that hard as well. The presentation team spent the rest of that evening practicing our lines and our blocking.
The next morning came way to soon. Oddly enough, I was confident and just a tad nervous. We got ready, all got in our suits and made our way to the practice room. Our advisers were there the whole way, still tweaking little things, the morning of the presentation. As we made our way over to the convention center, I was so excited.
Our set up time was 9:50 am leaving us 30 min to set up before we had to present. Needless to say, we got everything set up quick and at that time it all became real. There we were, standing on stage, about to present our campaign to judges and other students. The doors opened and people quickly filed in. This is when it really hit. I looked out to see my mom, a few other parents, our teachers and classmates, and a few local AAF supporters and then a whole bunch of people from other schools. The next 20 minutes flew by. We delivered our pitch confidently, hardly any mess ups (which never happens with us), and smiled the whole time we did it. I think at that moment, I realized that I had made the right choice in my career path. That presentation made our whole almost year long of work, come together and made it all rewarding. We had a 10 minute Q&A with the judges which seemed to fly by as well.
We played the waiting game the rest of the afternoon. At the awards banquet that night, they announced the special judges awards and then it was time to hear our fate. As they announced Texas State as the 3rd place winner, we all cringed. Texas State was a good competitor and we had a feeling we might be top two, hoping for first since it was flawless. When second place was called, and West Texas came out of judges mouth, we went up for our trophies. It was disappointing, there were some tears, but there was also a great sense of pride. We were sandwiched in between two of the biggest schools in the state of Texas. Texas A&M went on to win first and we were eagerly waiting to see their performance the next morning since we had missed it.
The next morning, we saw the judges score sheet and the comments made. Our presentation was 1 point under the winning teams and our plans book was about 7. We had a ton of great comments from the judges and one even wrote, "Good Luck at Nationals" hoping we would have won. Overall, the learning experience was amazing. NSAC has taught me more than any other class has probably taught me. I was talking to a teammate last night and he said "I miss it already" and I had to agree. The experiences we had, and the way we presented all amount to so much. It's hard to not feel sad and happy at the same time. Something so big in our lives ended but we all gained so much from it. I am very blessed to have been a part of something so great. I hope to keep this legacy up for Buffalo Advertising and keep the name going as one of the top schools in the district. We still have a chance to make wildcard for nationals. Fingers Crossed!
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