I had my first actual interview today, and it went well. It was identical to an Academic Decathlon interview actually, except more free. I let a few things slip through the cracks. They told me "dressing up is not recommended; just come casual," but I don't believe in that kind of stuff so I wore a skirt and my interview heels. It felt very familiar. I improvised with my interview intro a little, and it felt good because I've met two of the judges last year in a meeting before. Also, they told me what they liked about my app, so that gave me a bit of confidence.

In retrospect, I grit my teeth at all the things I did not control. I ran on a little, I was not definitive in some of my answers, I did not express some things I wished I did, I tapped my foot sometimes and it made a sound because of the heel, I looked away sometimes. But it is always like that after interviews. You give out answers so much, that you wished you could have used your best ones.

But I am glad no interviews are perfect. I do not mind as long as I am able to express how I genuinely feel. I do not care as long as I am able to communicate that I am unique. I do everything and I love everything and I do not just do everything to fill out my applications. That is just a plus :)

Johnson Dang does not want to hear it from me, because he is always less enthusiastic about these things than I am, but it was really exciting today. It was my first real interview. They had me talk a bit about myself, like the interview intros. They had my application which was like my resume in interviews. They used my resume for the interview! But the real interview was much more engaging. Like they spent time. Like they had specific goals. Bill wanted to know about Engineering. Susan wanted to know about the Gay-Straight Alliance. Paul wanted to know about my reading. I liked Paul the most, because he was the most enthusiastic. He did not look up from his notes on his laptop much (I made sure to look at him still though!) but he kept giving me questions that tried to explore my gains from my experiences. I think I fell short on some aspects of that though, but I do not want to dwell on that too much.

It was really fun. I wish I had a team to talk to about this. Truthfully, so much that I want to cry.