There are few things better than attending the National Junior Classical League convention, but attending the Latin competition in your own city is one of them. The entire event included around 1,600 Latin students, 34 of which were students from HCHS. People from all over the country came to Trinity University this summer, including the one JCL delegate from Alabama. It was a memorable week of frantically running around campus, trying to cram in as much last-minute information about the Latin language as possible.
The overall theme of the convention was a quote from Vergil’s Aeneid: “Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them.”
But which misfortunes was the convention quote referencing? Forcing yourself to stay up until 2 a.m. to study and practice state cheers? Or maybe Vergil was talking about the struggle of worrying that your toga or stola wasn’t as cool as everyone else’s during the “Tiber Riverwalk” held at the end of the week.
As it turned out, none of these things mattered. What did matter was that I got to spend one of the best weeks of my life living among teenagers and teachers that were just as excited about the language as I was. It seemed insane to think that I would walk out after seven days having bonded with people that lived across the country, but it happened, even though it will be years before I see those people again.
But, I also grew closer to the people I go to school with, namely Prachi Singh, who was, at the time, a recently graduated senior. The entire convention was about more than taking tests, performing passages, and creating art to gain a national title. It was about the unity created by compressing 1,600 Latin students into a small campus, and the bonds of friendship that formed as a result.
The theme of the 2015 NJCL didn’t truly sink into me until I had already left the campus and put it behind me as another one of my high school memories. But, Vergil’s quote finally makes sense. He isn’t talking about not complaining about everyday struggles like staying up too late or putting on a full-length toga in 100 degree weather. Vergil wants us to stand against our previous losses, to learn from them and strive because of them. To not give up and settle for 4th, when you were only a couple points behind 3rd, and always come back more boldly than before.