Youth of the Year Competition Run-down
Alright everyone: this is a nice, quick, comprehensive run-down of what went on in Stuttgart:
1.Drove in a car down to Stuttgart with Bly and Alice. Normally, I would only be traveling with bly, but since there was an issue with the older-male-younger-female, IMA-Europe decided that we needed a chaperone so that no (non)consentual sex would be going on. Whatever. as long as I went down there and I did my job, I didn't care-- fun is secondary.
2. Arrived at the hotel 2-1/2 hours later than expected. One of the best military hotels I have seen in my entire life. slept. Drank tazo. Woke up. Not exactly in that order. then spent the morning primping and writing my speech on what the boys and girls club means to me. then went into competition against six other bases-- and I knew a couple of the people there, and really got to talking with four out of the seven of us.
3. Here's the rundown of the interview: there were three military people at a long table, determining the youth of the Year for Europe. They each ask two questions, you give your answers as quickly and calmly as possible. then you stand up and give your three minute speech on what the BGCA means to you. the questions?
a. Why do you deserve to be the youth of the year? (answer: I didn't think about trying out for youth of the year until my advisor and people on the USEUR level told me that they thought I could do it. Now that I reexamine myself, I think I deserve to be Youth of the Year because I've overcome many obstacles [most of which I'll cover later on in my speech, but I can tell you now that some of them were things like an unhealthy lifestyle, or a negative mindset]. In overcoming those obstacles, I've not only made myself a better person, but I've also made my community a better and more liveable place.)
b. What was your hardest obstacle, and how did you overcome it? (Answer: My hardest obstacle was definately a negative mindset-- I was living in a negative environment that instilled in me no hope for college, no self esteem, and no real destination in life. I got out of it because there came a choice of whether to stay in that negative environment or to move to one that was almost definately better... it provided more opportunity and more motivation. I stepped out of the negative environment and then told myself that in order to live the life I wanted to live, I would have to change the way I saw myself and the world.)
c. What area in yourself would you like to see the most improvement? (answer: Definately time management and organization. If I can do so much in life with no knowedge of time-management skills, I can only imagine how much more I could do once I'm able to realize and accurately use the time I have.)
d. Who is your role model? (answer: I have two, mainly because you not only have to know what you want to be, you have to know what you don't want to be so that way you know your destination. My first rolemodel is my advisor, Bly Blyden, because he walks into every situation and every new person trying to find out where they're coming from with motivations and mentalities, and he doesn't judge a person until he knows all of the background. My second rolemodel is the character George Gray from Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology, who described his life as "a boat longing for the sea, and yet afraid." I don't want to be like that. I want to go into life fearless, living each moment to its fullest, not tip-toeing into each situation. My ultimate goal is to be a person who appreciates and understands not only my own life, but those of others.)
e. What do you like most about living in Europe as a military child? (answer: I absolutely love being able to look at the diversity of each culture, and looking at what the standing morals are. When I look at a culture, I take the parts of it that coinside with my own morals and use them to re-evaluate myself based on that understanding.)
f. If you had some magical power for a day, what would it be, and how would you use it? (Answer: My first choice for a magical power would be the ability to give people the foresight to walk into a situation and know every possible outcome and every risk they would have to make. This would allow people the ability to walk into a situation and take on full responsibility for their actions, because they would be the ones making the decision and knowing what they are in turn sacrificing. My second choce would be to talk to every teenanger in america and tell them that they are not the working hands of the world, and that they don't have to bite and claw their way up to the top. I would tell them that if they believe in themselves, they don't have to fight for the top-- they will automatically find it.)
4. Said my speech on "what the Boys and Girls Club of America Means to you."
5. Went home!
I think I might have gotten it. Bly says that I did, but we have to wait for the official email to come, which will be about wednesday or thursday. I'm nervous and anxious. But I think that I did a good job... I didn't wish for world-peace or anything, so it's good and non-generic.
Time to wait. Gah.