The first day is done and I cannot emphasize how amazing it is to be here. The amount of people I’ve met is amazing and to hear everybody’s story is really quite interesting. I’ve met Polish twins, an Australian soccer player from Oregon State and even people from my own school who I didn’t even know before coming here. We’ve done so much, met so many people, and learned in depth about our behavior in just the first day, I can’t even imagine what’s in store the next couple of days.

After Sara’s and my shopping adventure, we headed back to the hotel  and checked in to our groups. We then headed to lunch with some other early arrivals and after returned to our room to get ready for our long day ahead. Usually when you’re at an event as exciting as this one, time tends to go fast, however, we both got ready so quickly that we ended up waiting around the last hour before the commencement of everything. Similar to most other student-athlete events that I’ve been to, we had to lay out the ground rules and many speakers emphasized the “time is now” for us to push ourselves, network, and learn about whether or not we should actually pursue a career in athletics. I knew from that moment, sitting along with the other eight people I had never met before, that this was going to be a great weekend.

Following the first few speakers, we were then split up into our color groups. The red group is certainly a wide variety of athletes, from all reaches of the United States, all with a unique story to tell. It’s pretty incredible what some of all the athletes around me have achieved – there’s actually one of the pitchers from the Oklahoma Sooners softball team, who was in the WCWS Championship. They unfortunately lost to ‘Bama and the pitcher took the soonest flight out of OKC, without sleep straight into the things. The rest of the student-athletes are incredible and I’m so honored to be with them, learning and admiring everything they have accomplished. It’s interesting to note, however, that I’m actually the youngest at the conference. I have met a lot of people, but none of them have been younger than a junior – most people are seniors or graduated already. I’m really enjoying asking them the keys to being successful at the next level and learning what makes them tick.

After what seemed like an eternity, we had dinner which was absolutely delicious and then listened to DeNita Turner, President and Founder of Image Builders. She explained to us that the first fifteen seconds that you meet anybody creates a lasting impact and can define your career. In addition, she gave us a number of tips on how to sell ourselves, including a thirty second spiel in the elevator. I really liked her stories and think that her tips will be useful, especially in all the elevators in NYC. Following her speech, we returned to our color groups and went over some points we had learned throughout the day. It was mostly just a recap of everything in less than thirty minutes. Maybe it’s just me, but the best part of the night came last. We ended with a student-athlete social, where I got to interact with everybody using the handy dandy skills I had just learned. It was beyond incredible to meet everybody and learn how they came to school. I met a lot of people from around the country, including some SoCal people I hope to keep in touch with. Overall it was just a terrific day, but I have to get to bed considering I’ll be up at 6 tomorrow to workout.

Looking so official and stiff – ya know?