The OJCL Torch Spring 2016 | Page 6

Spring 2016 11 Can’t-Miss National Convention Events Michael Kearney is a guest writer hailing from the state of Wisconsin. He is the National Junior Classical League 1st Vice President, and he attended the 2016 OJCL Convention. To First-Time Convention Attendees (and everyone reading this): 1. General Assembly I This holds true for all the General Assemblies— partly because they are mandatory—but trust me when I say this one is special. The first GA is the earliest time that all of the convention’s nearly two thousand participants gather together, and one is able to ascertain the scale of the whole thing. For returning delegates, it serves as a reminder of what they have missed over the past fifty-one weeks while for new delegates, it is the beginning of a brand new journey. 3. Olympika Track and Field A.M. I’ll preface this with a caveat—track begins at 7:15 If you haven’t already abandoned me, I’ll try to convince you. The NJCL Convention features both Ludi (team sports, which I’ll get to later) and Olympika (individual games). Although Latin Convention would not typically be thought of as a home for any things athletic, sports play a large and highly competitive role for many delegates. Come see world-class as athletes such as OJCL 2015-2016 Editor Josh Young compete for eternal glory in all the events typical of a high school track meet. 2. Agora 4. Spirit Again, you have to be there, but this one’s really worth it. If you attended States, you might think you know it all—you ain’t seen nothing yet (seeing a theme?). 2,000 Latin students. IU Auditorium. Cheering, dancing, screaming. Ohio always seems to fall just short—can you change that? You’ll hear this a lot over the course of convention— but if you’ve never seen a Nationals agora, you don’t know what you’re missing. Named after the public market space in ancient Athens, Agora (switched from the less classical “Bazaar” a few years back) provides an opportunity for schools and states from around the country to sell merchandise as a way of raising money for the coming year. Especially look out for Virginia’s famous “Varsity Latin” tshirts and Wisconsin’s “Ludi” jerseys (shameless plug). VI