Midnight Mosaics: My First Year in JCL
When I first joined JCL in my freshman year, I only understood half of what I was getting myself into. My sister, Sofia, told me tales of midnight studying and drowsy 6 AM Certamen. When I was choosing my classes for freshman year, she made me promise to take Latin.
On my first day of Latin, I found that two of my best friends shared my class. I remember thinking in that moment "boy, am I lucky to have some friends in this class. We'll go to SCRAM and State Convention and do Certamen! We could be the DREAM team!” As time went by, I realized that those friends weren’t as interested in JCL as I was. During the actual convention, I found myself running into a different group of people.
After State Convention, most of my Certamen team tapered off studying. I was planning on attending the National Convention, so I spent the summer pouring over my notes. As I counted down the weeks, days, and hours until Nationals, I worried. Would I be good enough to make the California team? What would Nats be like? Would I make any friends there? As the final hours flew by, I raced to complete my last-minute mosaic.
We drove to John Wayne Airport early that morning. After 7 hours worth of delays and two flights, we finally arrived at Miami University at 3:30 AM. As we unpacked, Sofia reminded me that tryouts for the state Certamen team began at 7 AM- in less than four hours!
Outside my dorm, friendship was literally just around the corner. Upon hearing that our coach postponed the warm-up rounds from 7 to 9, I went back to my dorm room to get my mosaic. In the hallway, there were girls bustling about. One carried an intricate paper mosaic, another a poster about Roman astrology. I watched as my friend Alexisse assembled an origami map of Hercules’s labors. We all helped her pin the delicate Nemean Lion and Hydra to the foam backing.
As we worked and chatted, a chaperone came out of a nearby dorm room and hushed us. “Shh, keep it down a bit! I heard there was a group that came in at three this morning! We need to be respectful; they're probably still asleep.” Sofia and I exchanged looks. Sofia spoke up.
“Sorry ma’am. We’ll keep it down, but I know that a group came in at 3:30 this morning and they are very much awake…. It's us.”
The lady laughed good-naturedly and apologized for hushing us. With our art pieces in our hands, we made our way to the Graphic Arts registration. Afterwards, we ran to Certamen practice.
The Dream Team: Laila and her fellow National Certamen teammates practice for the competition of their lives.
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