Recently, I attended the states level of Odyssey of the Mind and I had a blast. I had a lot of fun with my teammates. Here are the highlights:

PERFORMING–Although the performance area was LOUD and everyone had some nerves, the performance was still exciting. None of the judges seemed to be laughing when we hoped they would be so that made us a bit nervous but it turned out to be okay.

FOOD–My friends and I went out to eat at a restaurant called Tinney’s. The food there was amazing and if it wasn’t so far away, I would eat there more often. There were also claw machines there. My coach was very kind and bought us all tokens. I knew claw machines were a scam, but there was tokens to burn! And, I kid you not, I won a stuffed chicken on my first try! After deciding not to push my luck with that machine again, I later won 2 ducks!

SWIMMING— At the hotel I stayed at, there was a big swimming pool. We swam for awhile and then we noticed there was a hot tub. The majority of the team (including myself) had never been in one. It felt great.

PIN TRADING–A big part of OM is collecting pins and later trading them. I only have 6 pins and have no intention of trading them. This part is more for my fellow writer, Henry Pasieka’s sake. There was a special arena that was taped off for the pin traders at the awards ceremony. I followed Henry and saw his amazing collection. We met lots of other pin traders and Henry even got a few rare pins.

There are so many reasons that I loved by OM States experience; many of which I can’t mention! My team is made up of some of the best people I have ever met (or will meet).