“The [Health Occupation Students of America] state conference was really cool, and I’m really glad we got to [come here]. It was at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, and it was the first time I’ve been there. It’s a beautiful hotel, and it was fun exploring it. We got to talk to people that we never thought we’d talk to. When we first went into our event, HOSA Bowl, it was basically a test, and we went in without pencils. They kicked us out, which was kind of funny because you can’t go to a written test without a #2 pencil, so that kind of tells how prepared we were. The test was really hard. There were a few questions that I knew, but with team power, hopefully, we do well. If we place today, we go to the actual HOSA Bowl tomorrow. [We find out] at 11 PM. I’m extremely nervous to find out.

[However], someone stole my friend’s backpack in the morning. I’m so glad that she got to call her dad, and he came down here. They got to find the jerks who stole the backpack. What made me really mad was that they just acted really cool about it and said that they didn’t mean it. But, how on earth do you steal a backpack without meaning it? I felt really bad, and I didn’t want to go home without them knowing that what they did was wrong. So, I went, and I told them that they should be ashamed of what they did today. The guy just kind of glared me at me and told me that they didn’t mean it. Overall, I just really hope they are out of the HOSA state conference, because it’s a leadership conference, and you shouldn’t steal whether it’s a joke or not. It’s not yours.”

(Junior)