California TSA Newsletter September 2013 | Page 11
DAY 5 THROUGH GRANT’S EYES
LAST DAY! Wow, it all passed by so quickly yet so slowly. Really something you would understand only if you have experienced it (so you should all go this year!). CA TSA woke up really early this morning to make sure our bags were packed and ready to go. Dressed in our formal clothes and bleary (but excited) eyed (now, I was even more tired than some of the others because I was watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone till about 3 in the morning), everyone headed down to the last General Session of the 2013 National Conference - the Awards Session. Because there were so many events (both high school and middle school levels), some of our CA TSAers fell asleep at the session (I know I did, teehee)! But time went by and every event was called followed by the top ten finalists in that event. Once all the finalists were on stage, the top three places were announced. We fervently awaited each of our events, hoping for the announcer to say “from California.” Tik tok, tik tok. “Open Source Software Development.High School Finalists.” … “Diamond Bar High School from California.” WHAT! California made National Finalist in our first year! Alice and I (Bill Kwai and Hall Chen, also part of the team, did not attend the Conference), shocked, walked down the aisles and headed to the stage. Given a finalist pin, we were both overjoyed and anxious - now that we made it into the finalists, we HAD to get into that top three (I WANT A TROPHY!). All ten teams stood on stage and the third place team was announced. It was not us. There is no way we could have gotten into top three then, and we were aiming for just a third place. Second place. DIAMOND BAR HIGH SCHOOL FROM CALIFORNIA! Oh dear God, I think my heart almost burst open at that moment. Alice and I were so awkward, not knowing how to react and twitchedly accepted the trophy. I do not even remember hearing first place being announced; having a second place at a National Conference was enough for me. We ran back to our seats and took quite a few pictures while messaging Bill and Hall about the amazing news. “Promotional Graphics. High School Finalists.” … “Nicole Chen from Diamond Bar High School, California.” WHAT! Our State Reporter made National Finalist as well! Unsure of what to do, I kind of panicked (Nicole usually takes the photos) but eventually grabbed her camera and rushed up to the front of the stage taking snapshots after snapshots (though not very good ones - I’m not much of a photographer). Nicole did not make it to top three, but top ten in the entire nation was already so amazing! The excitement ???H?HYY??H?]Y?\? ][? H]?\? ??\??[???[?YY ?]?[? X[ H H]?\? ??[YH ?H???H[? H ? L?L? M?][?[??X?\?? ?\?H[???[??Y ????] [][?? ??][?[ ?\?Y[??[??^H?? ]?[K?][?[?X?H ?\?Y[??H?[[XY?YK?][?[?X?]\?H[^?X?]??[????][?[ ?X\?\?\??ZH?[[XY?YH
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