4th Place for the Win

When I was in high school, I was in an organization called DECA. For those of you who are not familiar with DECA, it stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America, and we jokingly referred to it back then as the Young Capitalists Club. If you were a member of this organization, you would know that we competed, regionally, statewide, and nationally, in categories we signed up for at the beginning of the school year. Although I started in Hotel and Lodging as a sophomore, I wound up moving over to Apparel and Accessories since I left my front desk job at Red Roof Inn and went to work where all teenagers wanted to work in the 80s - the mall.

I placed high enough in the DECA regionals to go on to the state competition in New Jersey. At this level, there were three rounds you competed in one day. Later on in the same evening, we gathered to see who among us would place in the third, second, and first-place spots in each of those rounds respectively, however, the overall winners would advance to the state round, which was to be held in New Orleans that year, would not be announced until the next evening at the Grand Awards ceremony.

Believing I did pretty well in each round, I was prepared to find myself on stage, gracing the Olympic-style podium on one of the three graduated steps, but I had to keep reminding myself that there were a lot of DECA students there who were looking to compete and win at the Great Gorge Conference Center formerly known as the Playboy Resort and Hotel that year.

Our class was seated in the auditorium all together in the center and 4th row of seating. We all sighed and groaned together as each category and round was called and Cinnaminson High School was not represented. When Apparel and Accessories category was called, my name was also not one called so I could head to the stage and possibly make it to New Orleans where the legal drinking age was still 18 and I was going to have that birthday and be eligible to imbibe on that trip.

Oh well. No Hurricane cocktails for me!

The following night, after a long day of meetings, all of us students got dolled up to go back to the auditorium for the Final Awards Ceremony. I had this great little black dress to wear and I was excited to look all grown up since I was going to be turning 18 soon. Despite my area of focus in the arts of clothing and accessories, the highest shoes I had ever worn up to that point was a Reebok High-top sneaker, but tonight I was going to wear high heels. Look at me!

"Wait, don't look at me. I can barely walk in these things!"

I struggled to make my way on 6" heels out of the hotel room, down the hall, onto the elevator, and into the auditorium, without falling and when I finally made it to my seat I breathed a huge sigh of relief and settled in to barely pay attention to the ceremony. The teacher and chaperone only had to yell at us to pay attention a half dozen times because we were all bored and ready to go back to the hotel rooms and be silly.

When my category came up I did lean in a bit. I wanted to see who the lucky person was who was heading to New Orleans instead of me. I watched as the third-place winner walked down the aisle, onto the stage, and onto the Olympic-type platform on the third-place step. Then the second place winner to the second place step. Then...

"First place in Apparel and Accessories...

Heather Ransome of Cinnaminson High School."

Oh no.

I have to walk up that stage in these heels.

And CLIMB up on the First Place part of the podium thingy!

Let me tell you that when you aren't great at wearing high heels to even walk, and you add the fact that your legs are shaking from nerves, and you have to climb up on a box that is about 3' tall, half your size, in front of hundreds of your teenage peers, it is what nightmares are made of.

I made it though I made it on stage, I made it onto the box, I made it to first place in New Jersey and I made it to New Orleans! But how????

They handed me a trophy and put a medal around my neck. I got off the podium and returned to my seat, still completely in shock. I found out later that I had placed 4th in every round of the three rounds, leading me to win the overall competition.

That has stayed with me my whole life. I don't mean the recurring nightmares I have had about this story which is why I can still recount this story as if it happened yesterday. I mean the fact that I didn't shine in any one area. I wasn't a stand-out in one part, but because I was good in all the parts, I won. And I use that idea to live my life. I do the best that I can in all areas of my life and don't neglect one area to win in another area. It is a balance of energy, talent, and time - not leaving any category unattended to achieve greatness in just one, therefore I can win overall.

Oh, and the other thing I learned that day is that I can surprise myself and arrive at my goals via an alternate route! Maybe a little unsure-footed and a bit wobbly but it doesn't matter. I made it there!

4th place