Approximately a week or two before spring break of my 10th grade year was The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) state competition. Prior to this, I signed up for an objective based test for Introduction to Information Technology (IT) as my chosen FBLA competition topic. At the district level competition, I won second place in my competition. This was the first time I had won anything in the district level FBLA competition. Those who placed in district level were allowed to compete in the state level competition in their specific competition. For FBLA state competition, we took a lengthy bus ride from Hialeah, Florida to Orlando. While winning in district was significant in itself, there was more to come than I originally realized. The…show more content… This day went by quick, yet it took forever at the same time. The first portion of the day went by like nothing, until the competition announcements. Since there are so many competitions to announce, we were there for hours upon hours. Once we proceeded to sit down, I sat next to one of the officers from my school’s Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) club. We talked until my competition announcement neared to be announced. My heart started pounding, unsure of what to think, I exchanged extremely contradicting thoughts with myself. I felt that I should not try to raise my hopes since I… “Michael Pena-Knight 5th place in Introduction to Information Technology.” I was in shock, not only had this been my first time placing in district, but states too? This was a dream comes true. This was a defining moment, with my persistence; I had risen above so many others and earn my 5th placing in the state competition. I was only one of a few to actually place in a state competition in my school’s FBLA. This earned me a reputation and I became recognized by my peers. Not only was this a victory, but afterwards one of the officers from AOIT asked me to be an officer next year for their club. This was a defining moment of my persistence that paved my path for the remaining years of High school. It was because of this very moment and my new found persistence; I earned
