For all of those who are not familiar with BPA, it stands for Business Professionals of America and is a club and also a class for school. The class involves all business activities such as website design, which I was in with my two partners Michaela Martin and Adam Guenther, and other areas such as administrative support concepts, keyboarding production, spreadsheet application, and everything in between. My website design team competed in regions, state, and then got the chance to go to Nationals which was in California, and where we would be up against other teams across the nation. I was really excited to go because I have never been to California. Now that I am back from the trip, I can tell you everything that happened and how we did in the competition.

I got up at 2:00 A.M. and tiredly made sure that everything I needed was packed. I was to be at the airport by 3:30 to meet the group. Once we were all there, we went through security and finally boarded the plane. The plane was incredibly small, with only two seats on each side and an isle so small you had to shimmy sideways to get through. I might have banged my head multiple times on the overhead bin. After the three hour flight, we all divided into three shuttles which then took us to the Hilton Hotel where we would be staying for the next four days.

When walking from the shuttle into the hotel I would have thought I was still in Minnesota because it was so cold, but the palm trees were a clear indication that that was not the case. When I looked at the forecast it would be like that for the rest of the trip and I realized how I should have checked that before I packed since all I had in my suitcase were shorts and t shirts. I’d have to somehow survive the cold.

My friend Michaela had her spread sheet event that day, so we waited for her to finish, then we all walked a good mile to target to buy groceries for our room and walked back with groceries in hand. My arms were really sore after that. That night we all got dressed in our business attire to attend the opening ceremony. The ceremony greeted us with bright lights and loud music; it was long and late. Everyone was tired from lack of sleep and jet lag and I may or may not have fallen asleep through most of it. We would have to get up early again the next day for the tour of Hollywood, so after the ceremony we immediately went to our rooms and went to bed.