I’ve made many mistakes in my life but this one has impacted me the most so far. Honestly, it wasn’t really a mistake, it was more of a learning experience. To begin with, I went to leadership workshop in Columbia, Missouri my sophomore summer, where I first met all the state level officers of a high school club called Future Business Leaders of America (or FBLA). I turned to my advisors and said, “I want to be that.” They told me everything they could about becoming a state officer, and that’s where my journey started. While becoming a state officer in FBLA could be rewarding in many aspects, I care moreabout helping others than a title; I realized that I wouldn’t be happy in a state officer position and if I would have obtained this role, it wouldn’t assist me to become who I want to be. When the school year started, I began my huge amount of paperwork including summarizing campaign plans, budgets, filming a video, earning my business awards, and many more projects. This process was strenuous and thorough, so I had to want it, and I did. My advisors definitely helped with advice on all my essays, general support, and creative ideas. The whole time I was thinking about how much fun this was going to be; I didn’t exactly think of the competitiveness of it all. My chapter arranged to have a current FBLA state officer talk to my club; his name was Andy Pogue. I automatically knew that Andy didn’t want to be in the position he was; his mom, who was with him, definitely urged him to do this. He was very unhappy. I am always trying to have fun and be positive, so seeing him in this position put a damper on my aspirations of achieving state officer status. I sent in my binder of pre-campaign materials to the leaders of FBLA to see if I made it to the second round, and I did, I was ecstatic, my goal was becoming reality. Now onto the interview; upon arriving to this testing process I was very nervous. I’m not the most competitive person, so this was a lot for me to take in. It was a very tense group of students, I could tell they were not at all friendly to the idea of helping out another competitor. I went through a series of tests, interviews, and pretend speeches. I passed almost all of them but the FBLA history and parliamentary tests. I felt unprepared, but I know that if I really wanted this position I could’ve read carefully and guessed my way to a good score. Subconsciously I sabotaged myself because I knew I wanted more; I wanted to help people like none of these students could. I didn’t want to be defined by FBLA, I don’t need a title to show what I’m all about, helping people. Helping people through any way that I could, especially through encouragement and talking with students on a one on one level. Was all this hard work for nothing? I didn’t get a high enough score on that test and did not advance onto the campaigning stage of the process, was this it for me? Of course not; I am still a district level officer and try to do everything I can for my local chapter. I learned that it’s not all about the glitz and glamor of a title that won’t mean anything to me,, or anyone,, in a year, but that I tried. Not to mention, I made key relationships with my advisors and made friends that I continued to see even after this experience. All in all,; my involvement in this process was significant; I learned more than I thought I would and obtained opportunities no one else had. This experience was amazing; I don’t regret it at all. I wasn’t meant to become a state officer and I’m content with that. This “mistake” helped me grow into the person I am today, the person I want to be, by helping me realize that it’s the people I care about, not the power.