(6/12) “I went running down the hall. I hadn’t even taken time to zip up my backpack, so
(6/12) “I went running down the hall. I hadn’t even taken time to zip up my backpack, so my papers were flying everywhere. I ended up finding DiCo in the cafeteria, and I told him what the judge had said to me. He was excited at first. But then he asked to see my scorecards, and that’s when his face changed. It started getting redder and redder. Even though I was winning, my scores were dropping each round. And all the judges were writing the same thing: ‘Jonathan needs to stick to the facts. His life story gives him an unfair advantage.’ DiCo didn’t like that at all. He told me that he was going to come watch my next round. This time I was competing against a kid from California. Another minion: khaki pants, white shirt, leather briefcase. And I ended up doing very well. I made all my points. And when the scores were being added up, both me and DiCo were feeling confident. But the judge finally stood up, and announced that I had lost. Honestly I didn’t care much. I was just happy that I’d made it so far. DiCo seemed happy too. But then he took a look at the scorecard, and it said the same shit: ‘Jonathan used his personal story too much.’ And that’s when DiCo snapped. When DiCo snaps, it ain’t like reality TV. It’s beautiful. It’s the most articulate disrespect ever. He’s using all these big words. He’s asking questions, just like he taught us. He’s saying things like: ‘You will not do this to him. These rich kids have access to every resource. But you’re penalizing Jonathan because his life is fucked up?’ But DiCo isn’t doing everything that he taught us. He always told us to control our emotions. But DiCo was getting pissed. He smacked the scorecard down on the table. He’s twitching. I think he might have called the judge a racist. I started laughing, because DiCo was acting crazy. But that made DiCo even more mad. He didn’t even speak to me when we walked out of the room. But that night when we were packing up our hotel, he was like: ‘Why aren’t you more angry? You worked so hard for this.’ And I’m like: ‘I dunno, DiCo. This is normal life for me.’ And he’s like: ‘Well, you better start caring more. Or this is going to be your life forever.’” -- source link