occultatio

So Matt, you might ask, how did the Latin convention go? Are you the new leader of CJCL?

Futu te, I might respond, meaning that you should go fuck yourself.

Which seems only appropriate, seeing how I got fucked over royally. (NOTE: although I am being a little (read: a lot) self-pitying, I DO recognize that the entire contest was absolutely fair and legal from beginning to end)

There were three nasty surprises, each one growing in intensity. The first was when I found out, pre-convention, that my competitor was from the home school.

The second came when all of the candidates were waiting to have their speeches taped. I was scanning the room, trying to figure out who I was running against. Then someone told me that I was running against the current Convention President. As in, the guy who was in charge of organizing this very convention.

Futu me.

So my speech went well (people would tell me that I had the best of all the candidates), and I went out to paper the campus with posters. Which is when I realized that all was not lost, for my opponent would be too busy running the convention to campaign much (or, as it turned out, at all). So I realized that I would have to spend all next day campaigning and talking to people and generally making myself known.

Which I did. Very well. I focused on the small delegations, which have as many votes as the huge ones, and I convinced a lot of them to vote for me. Plus, I had all of my schoolmates spreading the word, too. So by the time the final general assembly rolled around, I was feeling good.

Then the third nasty surprise came.

Unlike all previous years, when all voting delegates were required to attend a caucus Saturday morning to hear speeches, this year speeches were videotaped and played on a TV from 1 to 3 on Saturday afternoon, for delegates to drop in at their leisure.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the Parliamentarian began reading a list of schools disqualified from voting because they hadn't gone to see the speeches. I saw more than half of my schools drop away.

And you know how much I lost by? 1 vote.

Fuck.