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Eugene Ahn
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1101
6 October 2014
A Medal and a Trip to Nashville
Moving on to the event of Global Business, will the following groups line up next to the
stage., the words boomed over the speakers, an audience of over a thousand students from
North Carolina and I was sitting there with my partner, ready to embrace a prize we didnt
expect, or prepared to fully moan and complain about how the system was rigged and we should
have placed, such is the nature of competitive events. Such was the atmosphere at the Sheraton
Conference Centers main convention hall, where one and a half thousand students were
gathered at the closing ceremony in preparation to know which of us would be given a ticket to
Nashville, which of us would drive home with a medal around our neck, which of us could go
home and tell our mothers that we had won something of some significance or something like
that. My partner and I were seated at the two left most seats on the far left column of the awards
ceremony, closer to the front than the back, but closer to the center than the front. The previous
year, we had stepped onto that stage and claimed first in state for our presentation and extensive
packet of information on our own business plan. This year, we were less than half as confident as
the year before, and much more relaxed, already ready to react in a way that was considered
normal.
During my last year of high school, I was asked by the advisor of the Future Business
Leaders of America, or FBLA, club to compete at the state conference as I had done the year
before. I was hesitant, I already had scholarship applications and college letters coming in at the

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time and my plate felt full, but one moment shifted my decision completely. After school that
day, my partner from last year approached me to ask about our involvement in FBLA, he was
already under the impression that we would be competing together again.
What competition do you wanna do this year? Business Financial Plan is taken so we
cant do that
I dont know I actually might not compete this year
wait what?
My bad dude, I just kind of felt like itd be too much work and I wouldnt be able to
commit to it
Oh hey I understand, but this is our senior year, why dont we just have fun with it
this year?
Have fun?
Yeah man! We could just go, do our thing, put forth the minimum work required, and
just YOLO the whole thing
At this point, I hadnt even considered just having fun with the competition. When my
teacher had asked me to compete, I was so worried I wouldnt be able to recreate the first place
performance I had done the year before, worried I would just end up making a fool of myself, or
worse, ending up disappointed in myself, the worst feeling imaginable for my high school
mindset. I had always approached the FBLA competitions in the most serious manner I possibly
could, and they became work so tedious, it was difficult to concentrate on anything else, and
more often than not, the result would become something that didnt come from Eugene Ahn, and
rather, some faceless high school student. This year, it would be different.

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My partner and I scoured the available competitions for the 2014 competitive year to find
something that we could tackle. The previous year, we had competed in Business Plan, a
competition infamous for the amount of preparation, studying, and rehearsing that it demanded
of its competitors, we looked the other way in terms of competition styles so that we could have
a completely fresh outlook on this years competition. We eventually managed to narrow down
our options to two, but Global Business was the event we decided to enter. Global Business
required us to take a lot of general knowledge and expand upon it to have a strong pool of
knowledge to draw from; this was our own responsibility in regard to the preparation for the
event. The actual competition was broken down into two parts: the written test, and the oral
presentation. The written test was a 100 question multiple choice test to be taken in the same
room as all the other groups, the top 10 scoring groups would advance to the presentations. My
partner and I had no prior knowledge when it came to Global Business so we were going into the
event nearly blind, thankfully our advisor already had some packets for us to read.
Usually, I always dreaded reading packets or informational essays and other similar
publications due to the nature and reason for the reading. I had to drag myself through the line
and words and almost never retained information because of my mental facilities being forced to
focus mostly on staying awake and committed rather than to the information my eyes were
taking in. But this was different, our approach to the entire competition somehow managed to
affect my approach to the reading. I was assigned to read a packet and a short novel on the
implications of human resources and the social side of international business, cultures, societies,
jobs, everything and its mothers in regards to the social side of these businesses. I didnt find it
so interesting that I couldnt stop reading, I didnt find it so overwhelming that I knew I had to
finish by a certain time, I didnt even find it dreadfully boring. I kept reading, I read it all, and

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almost had myself look for more because I was almost reading for fun, but I didnt understand
why. I was reading all this information, retaining it, and I was able to spit it back to my advisor
and partner, it was great, and almost enlightening to me. I had always enjoyed reading, but this
was different, I had no idea where the drive was coming from, but I was getting it done and
getting it done well.
We demolished the test, which we considered the less desirable of the two sections, and
prepared ourselves for the oral presentation. The presentation was based around short term
preparation. We were given the prompt, and then given 30 minutes to develop our entire
presentation; we had practiced twice with our advisor beforehand and thought we had a good
grasp on the format. We practiced a prompt in which we were a company looking to expand to
the Philippines and we practiced another prompt in which we were an employee getting a job in
Germany as a representative for a foreign company. This idea of globalization was something we
were prepared for. However, when we got to our event and finally got our prompt. It was
Subway. We were to be Subway, expanding to Mexico. It was so unexpected and so much more
simple than what we expected. Subway.
And in third place names I dont remember!.And in second place. Ahn and
Uthra! And in first place names I dont remember! Please give our top three a round of
applause! We got second, we were very confused on how to react, was that good, was that bad?
Regardless of the result, we felt much better this time around that last time, less stress less work,
less fear. The result might not have scored as high, but the result was something we could really
put ourselves into. We went to Nashville, didnt place top ten there, but that was fine too. In the
end, we still felt great, we went into the competition happy, and we learned information that we
didnt think we would get.