So folks, I’m back, and I have a story to tell: I’m back from the SkillsUSA National Championships in Kansas City, if you’re wondering what it is, it’s a national conference showcasing America’s best technical students and workers, in the secondary and post-secondary level. I had the privilege of going there, competing for the National Web Design contest, managed/sponsored/hosted by WOW, the World Organization of Webmasters. Kansas City is uber nice. I realize I’m not the greatest of those who take pictures, well screw you, foo, I never wanted to be a photographer in the first place yo!

My buddy and partner Matt and I competed in the secondary level, against a total of 70-ish other high school people, therefore totaling up to about 35 opposing teams. It seemed like we didn’t have any chance of winning — they all looked potentially dangerous and skilled, but we went and did our thing anyway. After designing and coding a professional website for a non-profit organization, we walked away from the competition that evening thinking we did aight.

Sad to say, we didn’t place in the top three national ranking. So we didn’t get any medals, scholarships, fame, or anything like that. Later on that day, we went online and checked our scores… and to our freaking surprise and near-death shock, our total score was 75.6%… and we were ranked in 4th place. I was like OMFG so close! Indeed it was, one place away from 15 seconds of fame, a bronze medal, and a scholarship. Oh well… things won’t always go our way, and so we left Kansas City with our New Mexico troupe knowing that there’s always next year… Perhaps we’ll be a lot better by then — perhaps enough to win 1st place and a gold medal. Maybe.

Suffice to say, not all champions have to win a medal to be one. A number of events occurred at the conference other than the actual competitions themselves on Wednesday and Thursday. There were seminars, fairs, dances, and shows all throughout the days. But since I came to SkillsUSA as both a competitor and a volunteering slave, I spent most of the conference week doing volunteer work and community service. The most famous part of my work was taking part in the Timberland Community Service Project, sponsored by Timberland Pro, on Friday. Almost 1000 people came to volunteer to take part in large-scale projects from building homes for Katrina victims, undertaking restoration projects around the city, to painting murals and cleaning up once-famous roads and neighborhoods. In service for this slave work, I got a pair of Timberland work boots for free, woot!

I and the rest of my New Mexico part of the team were assigned to the Van Brunt Underpass Project. Around 150 of us or so had to clean up the deterioriated street and neighborhood of Van Brunt street. Along the underpass walls were large stone squares engraved in large quantities. Each square was deemed to be the drawing board of a country flag. And so teams were formed and were assigned to painting various flags around the world to celebrate the diversity which existed in the Van Brunt neighborhood. I, being a rather crappy artist, had a lot of fun painting, despite the fact it was hot as fizz out in the humid Missouri morning and afternoon. But ’twas good, yes it was.

I now have a newly-found respect for painting on random walls with house paint and sun-burnt brushes. It rocks my socks.

In other, more personal news, I’m not one to brag, but… I MET MY EVIL TWIN SISTER!!! zomg! she is a lot like me in many ways, omgomgomgomz twin sister of DEATH!!! Her name is Anh, and has the same last name and initials as I do. :O I swear she’s like a long lost twin sister or something, it’s almost scary and cool at the same time, nevertheless, she’s a really freaking cool person and she rocks my socks too (because her socks are yellow with bears on it, lmaozorz).

That’s me on the right, and my counterpart on the left, hahaha. We got lazy for like 5 minutes while at Van Brunt Underpass and decided to relax a bit. Then some photographer came and got this picture and posted it on the SkillsUSA website. Not really your concern, but all the photos with the SkillsUSA watermark belong to SkillsUSA — I didn’t take those pictures yo.

It sure is cool to be a winner in front of a crowd of around 10,000 people (yeah, there were that much at the ceremony, methinks), and it’s a shame that I, or any of my friends, were not able to place in the top three. But you know, such a loss and beatdown is something one should cherish. For now I (and perhaps my partner will realize this too) am glad, and have gone home to my quiet Albuquerque home an improved and inspired person. There are people out there in who are indeed better than you and I, because I have seen it with my own eyes, and such people would gladly sacrifice a lot of leisure for rigorous study and work to be the best. Such ambitions from people I don’t even know, yet nonetheless competed against, only inspires me to want it even more. Yes, I think I have found my resolve, for it only makes me want to do even more, beyond what my limits say they are. Ah, I have but another year to do what I want to do to become something that people often underestimate: Better. I may not be the best at designing websites for now, but I know that in due time, I’ll be better enough to outbest my own former self.

‘Til next time, SkillsUSA ‘07.