NSAC Finish Line

It was a picture finish of the last lap to see who won the AAF National Student Advertising Competition. Texas State University... took home the Bronze. Can an Olympian look at a bronze medal and call that a failure? Could it be both a failure and a success at the same time? I probably would never know what an Olympian would think, but for me it is exactly like my last question. A failure but a success.

I say failure because I am a competitor. As the great Herm Edwards said, "I PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!" Maybe it is not a failure, but it definitely stinks that we didn't come home with the first place trophy and had the opportunity to compete at nationals. In my mind, I wanted first so bad not because I felt that ours was better (although I do think that), but because of all the hard work my team and I put into this. I guess I felt that since we worked so hard that we were entitled the first place trophy.

However, I started to think that it was a success because I thought of all the teams that put just as much time into this competition and went home with nothing. How did they feel? To waste a spring break, to spend countless late nights at the school, to get so very little sleep, and to come home with nothing would just be heart breaking. My heart goes out to those teams that did have good ideas but came up short.

Of course, in any hard events that everyone goes through, there are lessons to be learned. Here are some things that I came away with. First, it doesn't matter how good your idea is. It is how you sell it and even then it is up to the client. If you don't get the job, take it with a grain of salt, and keep on going. Second, the friendships that you build are very important. Yes it's a competition, but the friendships that you make could last forever. Nick Melita, Kelby Schmidt, Ryan Tyson, and Adrian Bennett, it was a great pleasure to go into battle with you and I would never take this experience away. I hope I am not being extra weird... The third thing that I learned is to always work hard because if you do, it will pay off someday. Maybe not everytime, but people see that you work hard and they want to work with you. Also, let's just face it. People like hard workers.

This AAF NSAC was hard. I didn't sleep very much, I was tired a lot, but in the end it was worth it. It was worth staying at school until 3:30 AM. It was worth being tired... because at the finish line I saw how I have grown through this experience. I saw the friendships that I made, and I saw how the real world works. This is what counts... This is my life... This is my Poreia