Anyone who has ever been in high school knows people are crazy and tensions rise over the course of four years. No matter how fair people try to be, there will always others who get jealous or insecure. This story starts freshman year. At my high school there is a club called DECA which stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America. In DECA you basically compete in up to three competitions using business skills. This is the type of club that draws interest from all types of kids. There were the jocks, the nerds, and the weirdos but for some strange reason this club sparked an interest in all types of kids. This type of diversity is not common in the usual seclusion that comes with high school. In a sense it is a unique opportunity to branch out but it can also cause a great deal of controversy. The year my grade entered the high school, the club had just gotten a new advisor and things were not running as smoothly as in years past. This meant there was little to no prep for the new members of the club and we were basically thrown into the first competition blindly.
The majority of my friends and I decided to join the club and were eager for the first competition. Most students decided not to do much preparation because it was not necessary to succeed it just increased the chances. Of course those brainiacs in the club went over the top like they did with everything. I decided to study, seeing as I had no idea what I was doing. I had my parents quiz me with the online tests provided. None of my friends studied and they made fun of me for taking it so seriously.
Most kids couldn’t have cared less about moving on they just wanted a day off from school and a cushion on their college resume. To me this club was something I really wanted to do well at and give my all. I knew going into high school I was interested in business so this club meant a lot to me. I wanted nothing more than to progress so the possibility of my future career would look promising. I walked into the competition that day never having worn a blazer before and itching my legs through my tights. I did not feel prepared in the slightest but when it came time for my roleplay something clicked. It was as if nothing else in my life mattered, I was not preoccupied with school drama or the outside world. I had never expected my first competition to go as well as it did or for my natural ability in business situations to be so prominent. Before that competition the business world was more of a distant future that I had an idea of but this club brought me closer with the reality that my future was a mere four years away.
The only two freshmen to move on were one of my friend and I. There was not a single sophomore to move on, the usually thriving states competition would be downsizing that year with a meager two freshmen along with juniors and seniors. Some of my friends were more bitter than others that they would not be moving on but they quickly got over it, or so I thought. When it came time for the states competition a few months later, I was nervous to be staying in a hotel with only one person I knew. I was already intimated by the upperclassmen at school and didn’t know what it would be like to stay at a hotel with them for three days. Luckily the upperclassmen took us in and I ended up making some great friendships out of it. The states competition was a lot of fun but only around six people ended up advancing. I actually ended up winning and moving onto the final competition in Orlando. The other freshman did not end up moving on. Competing in ICDC was a great experience and I learned a lot.
The leaders of the club were seniors so they needed to start looking into the future of the club. There was a solid junior class with a variety of people who could be on the leadership board. However, looking long term with no sophomores and only two freshmen moving past the first competition, it was going to be tough deciding who deserved next year's leadership spots. The way the leadership board works is there are three branches with a vice president in each and three members of each branch. There are also two to three junior officers who take over for the two to three executive officers the next year. To apply there is simply an online form to fill out on what position you want. The seniors had to choose from only freshmen applications. Nearly every form was looking to become a junior officer seeing as they would be the president of the club for their junior and senior year. I was somewhat of a shoe in seeing as I had made it to ICDC, however the other spot was up for grabs. The other freshman who made states did not apply and all of the other freshmen who applied had done the same amount of work for the club. They did not want to leave all the pressure on me to provide for the club so they chose the other junior officer based on who had attended the most DECA fundraisers.
When we heard back about spots everyone had gotten there were a few who were upset.  I was a junior officer, along with my friend Stacy. Everyone was expecting me to get junior officer but Stacy did not have much of a reason for being chosen and others were jealous. Another freshman, Christa speculated that Stacy was chosen because she was friends with the upperclassmen. Christa did not know that Stacy had attended all of the fundraisers while she hadn’t been to one. The drama started at the first meeting when
Christa said, “Stacy the only reason you got that spot was because you’re friends with Brianna”.
Brianna chimed in with “Christa, you don’t know anything about how the positions were chosen so stop speculating”.
I added “Christa you have a position on the leadership board and have done nothing to contribute to this club so you have no right be complaining”.
“Then why was Stacy chosen then?” Christa said.
“Everyone was taken into consideration and had a fair shot at being a junior officer, it is disrespectful for you to assume there was favoritism involved when you do not even know me” stated Brianna.
Christa said “How was she chosen then?”.
Brianna said “It is none of your business how we chose because we know it was fair but since you are dying to know, Stacy attended all of the fundraisers while none of the other applicants attended any”. Christa stormed out of the room and never attended another meeting again. She did not join the club the next year but everyone was happy that that negative energy was out of the club. The rest of the leadership board worked happily and efficiently together and tried to make the club as good as it could be.
To me this conflict was not simply high school drama, this conflict was a representation of the things I would be dealing with in the future. The business world can be cutthroat and people will be power hungry. I gained a better understanding of the reality of the field I was planning on pursuing and for that I am thankful. I was able to control the situation and did well under pressure and that is one of the reasons I plan on entering the business world. People will always disagree with one another but it is how effective people are with controlling the situation that makes the difference. This story is one of many real life problem DECA has emulated and created a platform for the real world in a high school setting.