Choosing the Right Competitive Event

The year I joined hosa, I couldn’t wait until my first State Leadership Conference. I was very excited, but I could not decide what competitive event to do. That same year, I decided to run for a state officer position so the idea of choosing the right competitive event became more stressful. I came to the conclusion that taking a knowledge test would be my choice. I had decided to take the pathophysiology test because I was somewhat interested in diseases and I learned about pathology in one of my classes. The only problem was that I made this decision a week and a half before the test deadline. I studied as much as I could in that time period and then took the test to the best of my abilities. At the State Leadership Conference, unfortunately, I found out that I didn’t do so well. Although things didn’t work out, I did learn a valuable lesson from this experience. I learned that competing requires more preparation than a week’s worth of studying. I also realized that I should have chosen an event that I was more than vaguely interested in. With all of this in mind, I made it a mission of mine to find the event that suited me most. My senior year, I took a speech class and I also join the speech team at my high school. I really enjoyed speaking and it was a skill that I truly wanted to improve. After looking through all of the events offered in hosa, I discovered that prepared speaking was the event that best suited my interests. Soon after, I then started working on my speech and practicing my delivery. With some effort and preparation, I was able to place top ten at the State Leadership Conference. I looked forward to competing again and I plan on continuing to improve my speaking skills.