A Vacation, Defeat, or Great Fun? DECA ICDC!

Lucky socks, Air Canada fiascos, scamming Mrs. Pak out of her aisle seat, and a shockingly bright blue made up the 2024 Ridley College DECA trip to Anaheim, California. Having had a tearful journey in exams and a near-cemented service of color analysis, we were apprehensive yet incredibly excited to take our talents to the land of the Hollywood sign, Santa Monica Pier, and pin trading. We competed in the event IMCS (Integrated Marketing Campaign - Service). We spent far too many sleepless nights perfecting our exam scores and a forty-five-day-long marketing campaign that was complete with a week-long festival in partnership with the UN (United Nations) and merchandise made of refugee artwork.

After having had horrible luck at each turn throughout the competition — DECA lost Rawnie’s exam mark at regionals, gave us 20 minutes to write a 70-minute provincial exam, and cut off our 15-minute presentation two minutes early at internationals. Going home without Glass (top three) felt not only like a defeat but also like a massive waste of time and energy.

It is remarkable how quickly months of work can build up into a bundle of expectations waiting for its gratification before tumbling down into the pit of your stomach as despair. But if that bundle of melancholy is not addressed and instead spreads into self-pity and hopelessness, that infection takes root and will ruin all other joy that was not even tied to that initial expectation. There is a lesson to be had in our experiences, in winning splendidly at provincials and not placing as highly as we wanted. No matter how much time we spent in DECA for it not to pay off as glass in Anaheim, we were still happy we got to experience and learn all that we did.

Perhaps more importantly though, we thought the trip was a lesson in failure and learning how to push through it. Rather than rot for the rest of the trip (we just rotted for around two hours: we’re still human), we took it upon ourselves to explore LA and make the most of the rest of our vacation. Why wallow in misery when California was all around? Once we embraced this mentality, we probably had more fun in the last two days in LA than in the entire rest of the trip combined.

With the competition itself aside, the trip itself was beyond amazing. The California weather was sublime after St. Catherine’s soup swamp of winter and spring. The other DECA chapters, competitors, and advisors were a delight to meet, and the energy with over 23,000 other delegates from around the world was electric.

As next year’s Ridley DECA Chapter Presidents, we are determined to have Ridley College represented by more than just the two of us at internationals. So come and join the DECA club to see sunny Florida next year! You will have to work hard (we will ensure that much), but if you want a legendary experience in Toronto and Florida that you will never forget about in your entire high school career, it will be worth it. Let’s get the Pakster (Mrs. Pak), the Kenster (Mr. Kenny), and Ridley College to Florida with Mickey Mouse for 2025 DECA ICDC!