Despite not placing in the competition, participating in the FBLA county competition was important to me because of the valuable lesson I learned. I had a long speech prepared that I had spent several days preparing and memorizing, and was confidant that I was going to ace it. But the second I stood in front of the judges, I stumbled over my words, lost my place on my note cards, and was so eager to get it over with i rushed through the rest of my speech and didn 't make the time limit. I was so prepared to give a winning speech, i was dissapointed in my inadequacy. Noticing my disappointment, when my adviser came to discuss the performance, he told me he was proud. He assured me that going up there and giving my all was the most important