Congratulations & Reflections

So like my friend Dizzy25, I too learned a couple of things in my recent NSBE conference experience last weekend. Thank god I didn't have to travel anywhere but down the 110 and over the 105 to get to my conference at the Westin LAX this weekend. After a much more relaxing conference experience than the previous two, I come away with a couple of thoughts and questions:

I'm not officially a NSBE old head, but damn am I close. There were plenty of people in the region that I knew, but there are so many new people that I don't. And you know that feeling when you just FEEL older than everyone else? The only thing is that when I'm with the alumni members, I don't feel old enough to really fit in there. I'm not gonna lie, I was much more comfortable at the collegiate party than the alumni networking mixer. I guess it's just as I suspected....I'm still a kid at heart. I'm an 18 year-old trapped in a 65 year old body (damn arthritis is acting up again).

Why is that no matter how hard I work during any given year in NSBE, it always seem to come out better the next year. Kim has come up with a theory about this. She says that it's because usually the year that I hold a position I'm cleaning up messes from years before and so the person who comes after me has it easier than I did. While that makes me sound great, I don't know if I agree with that. But I still don't know what it is.

It was just really strange to me all weekend how calm and collected and put together everything was this weekend. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating. I'm actually glad this FRC went well and so many people had a great time at the conference, because I was beginning to lose hope. But things that always makes you wonder, what could you have done better to make what you did better? How much of it was things that I could have controlled and how much of it was based on the contributions (or lack thereof) of the people around you. Maybe I'm just being overcritical of myself right now, but I couldn't help shaking the feeling all weekend...it was really strange.

But besides that it felt really good to sort of be able to participate in the conference. I had a workshop to give, I judged a competition and I did one presentation at general session, but this pales in comparison to the things I had endured as Regional Vice Chair and Regional Chair. I think the best thing about the conference though was seeing the people from USC enjoy themselves so much and get inspired by what was going on. I mean that's really what these conferences are for. The excitement that our new members are showing for NSBE reminds me of how I was after my first NSBE conference and that makes me really happy. Hopefully there will be some renewed enthusiasm here now. We'll just have to wait and find out...