3 A. M. Writer- 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚕

Latin Convention Chronicles Part 2

The first part was rather dull, wasn't it? Time for some silly songs with Larry. I think it's about time we get to the good stuff. Took me long enough didn't it? There is a part of the Latin convention I wasn't aware of until I got into my freshman year of high school. The way the conventions are run is extremely well thought out and is almost like a mini-government all on its own. There is a position for president, VP, and other sections like historian, secretary, and advisor. The people who go to conventions and are in the Latin Club available at their school can vote on candidates for these positions. I didn't know or care about this until I realized that it actually mattered who ran the conventions as it affected how well planned they were.

I don't spend a lot of energy on politics unless I find it absolutely necessary. I don't mean to bore you with such a delicate topic, but trust me, this next story is actually kind of funny and ends well. There were two candidates one year for vice president. It would've been a better story if it had been for president, but these VPs were just as much of a big deal. They would advise the next president and be the ones who would be more of the face for the league. That year the options were IRL Oikawa and someone rather like Momo Yaoyorozu. Do you see where this is going?

I'll start from the beginning. My friends Will, Ann, and I were walking out of a building and were going to get food. We hadn't done anything for a few hours and were getting bored. A girl waved at us from across the HUGE courtyard (the place was a palace of learning I'm not even kidding it was like a Roman temple or something) and ran up to us. Turns out she knew Will from some theater thing and gave us some candy and a printed schedule of events. She was the Momo in this situation and she gave us a great short rundown of why we should vote for her. She was extremely confident and prepared. This was our first impression of the candidates.

The second one (the Oikawa) had signs up on every single wall of the entire school. It was a collection of memes about his campaign. We thought it was a bit odd how many there were. He must've printed a whole stack of posters... All of them had his handsomely chiseled face on it. We saw him later handing out flyers in an inflatable chicken costume. We immediately were suspicious. He was playing the popularity card and we (as a friend group consisting of nerds) thought that was slightly unwise. Here is photographic proof of the chicken costume.

The next event made me despise this man. I can't even.... This is where my Tanaka/Bakugou kinnie moments really began. I never thought I would attend a sporting event that I actually cared about that wasn't my brother's. I went to watch the basketball game that my high school was participating in. Our team was surprisingly good that year, though they were all on the shorter side. (One upperclassman of mine was especially good looking and I really went because I thought I could cheer him on lol) We were pumped and had tons of water for our voices when we got tired of screaming.

We did extremely well in the first round, as our team was excited and happy. It was a beautiful moment. However it didn't last. After our match, we saw the Oikawa candidate's school come onto the court. My jaw dropped. They were straight up rugby players. There was no way we could win against them. We didn't have to play them yet, but we watched their match. It got even worse when the Oikawa candidate swapped in for his team. He was literally wearing a dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes. He clearly wasn't prepared for this. He played for a solid five minutes before he traded shoes with a friend who was actually supposed to be playing. He didn't even do that much in the match, there was a blocker on his team who was a better team player, worked harder, and was more confident than the candidate had been the whole game. I don't want to be biased, but I would've rather voted for the random blocker guy than our option. And what really made me start talking crap about him was that the girls behind us were cheering specifically for him and shrieking "You go —-!!! Don't play too hard! You've still got to give your speech!" They were literally the girls from the first season watching Oikawa in the practice game. "He better not play too hard or he'll break his beautiful body!"

I mean, what the heck was that??

He swapped out a few minutes later as his speech to convince us all to vote for him was in thirty minutes. He had to de-sweatify himself before that speech, I'm sure. Our team was biting their nails because we had seen the thugs on that school's team. We were praying that their team would play someone else and lose so we didn't have to get pounded into the ground. Unfortunately, that's exactly the opposite of what occurred. We ended up playing against the rugby team and two of our players had to swap out because of injuries. One guy got his arm twisted real bad and the guy I had come to the game for got knocked to the wood and limped off the court with a knee outta wack. He had to get checked by a medic! Admirably though, he got back out of the court and my heart swelled with pride for my school. (Looking back, no wonder he didn't move from the bleachers for the rest of the day. He should've rested the knee when it bruised and swelled because he played that game anyway.)

After a miserable loss to the big boys, who turned out to be really nice and were just used to playing rough because of their short height as well, we stumbled out of the court and into the room where the meeting was being held. The first thing I noticed was Oikawa candidate's feet. I'm sorry, but this never left me. He wasn't wearing any socks in his dress shoes. This was gross for two reasons. He'd just played a basketball game and was still sweaty. (we could tell because of his hair.) The second reason was that he had high cut dress pants and we could see up to his upper ankle. That is the type of clothing you need to wearing socks with or you look stupid. He could've been handsome if he hadn't just looked stupid.

The speeches for both were decent. Our girl Momo was pushing for better resources for middle schools, Greek to be taught more as well as Latin, and distribution of test options. She spoke quickly, clearly, and confidently. We were surprisingly impressed with her campaign, and with our bias against Oikawa-san she seemed a better option. When Oikawa-san gave his speech we listened really hard. We wanted to give him the best chance of redeeming himself. He had a good campaign as well, though it focused more on competitions that people enjoyed more (such as sports, acting, and non-academic options) and social media presence of the Latin community. I had to agree that Latin as a language does not get enough hype. The only issue I had with his speech was that we couldn't hear most of it. He spoke so fast and deep that we missed what he was saying. I regret not sitting directly next to the stand so I could hear him without the microphone, but it was too late.

Of course, my friends being the Deku-squad that I love them for, created a pros and cons list for each candidate. We eventually decided that we'd vote for our girl Momo and hope for the best. We weren't sure at all that she would win because nobody knew her. She certainly wasn't the one in the chicken costume.

She did end up winning and of course this was a complete shock to our teacher who hadn't been there for any of this. Honestly, we tried to explain the day to him and all he said was, "Please, save it for when we get back. I'm high on coffee, crashing at the same time, and trying to deal with thirty three gay kids, could we please not today." I couldn't blame him, he was trying really hard.

At this same convention, I went to my first talent show. It was the best part of the convention for me that year. I didn't participate or compete, but watching it was so cool. The acts were funny, clever, and unique. There was a guy I remember that played a violin version of Despacito and I had never heard people cheer so loud for a violin act. Then there was a duo that did a dramatic interpretation of Clifford the Big Red Dog translated into Latin. It was so silly and it was their last convention as students, so it was also nostalgic for them. Then there was so much singing talent. There were two people that stood out to me when it came down to singing. There was a young woman who sang Driver's License better than Olivia Rodrigo and I would've hired her to sing the song instead. There was also an original piece done by a kid with a guitar and their voice was incredible.

The act that won was a group of boys that did a dance routine. It was uh, well, it was, popular. I liked it alright and I called it that they would win. I was surprised by the style they had chosen. It was hip-hop and they did extremely well. They were definitely trying to win and were using every trick in the book to get the crowd to laugh or simp for them or both. All I can say is that it worked and they took home the gold. Anyways, if you want more Latin Convention or Club stories, drop a comment! Thanks for sticking around with me!