District Convention 2016: A President's Reflection

One year. Seems like a long time when you say it but it’s already been one year since my first DCON and since the beginning of my term as president. When I look back at my DCON experience last year, as I just started out, compared to this year, as I come close to the end, all I can think of is "Wow, how things can change but still stay the same". There are so many new faces in each room ready to learn about whatever workshop they were in, whether it was for a board position or simply about the club in general. I can’t say I didn’t learn anything new because every workshop always has something different to bring, but I can say it felt surreal. As workshop hosts gave their presentations, people took notes of the important things while I reminisced on how the material impacted my term. As it was a bit of the same, it was also a lot different. Everything hit me harder this year. Cheering, not only for my club, but for the rest of the clubs and divisions meant more to me than it had ever been in any event. Seeing everyone run up for awards, I felt more connected than ever because I knew who won those awards and I worked with them so that we can stand tall together. It was bittersweet because I knew it was the beginning of the end, but I knew I wasn’t done yet. My favorite part about DCON was probably when my club discussed candidates after the first night of caucusing, and two members who came out of nowhere and knew next to nothing about Circle K, because they had just joined the club two weeks prior, got very engaged in the discussion on the future leaders of the district and division. To see brand new general members like that getting so involved in a discussion about something beyond the club level, it reminded me why I became president. It reminded me that I took the position to inspire the next generation of Circle K members to be their own leaders and get involved in the club that I hold close to my heart. If I had to summarize my DCON experience in one word, it’d be “inspiring” because of the new and excited leaders that are ready to take on the reins. One year. We’re almost there.

Raymond Martinez is a 3rd year Business Administration major at Irvine Valley College. He works at Krave Asian Fusion and serves as the 2015 - 2016 IVC CKI president.

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