D
rum roll…3,2,1: D-Day is here – the day of the big case. Even though the teams went through the mini cases in the past two days and achieved great results, the big case was worth most points so it demanded the most attention of all three.
Alarm set for 6:00 but I beat it by 5 minutes. Oh boy was I excited!
My team from Canada are finally going to show how much they prepared and worked to win the competition. A quick morning routine done, and I was off to the hotel Radisson Collection Hotel, Old Mill Belgrade. It was a bit cloudy and I remember thinking on the way there how to motivate my guys for the upcoming 24h case.
Walking past the front door the first people I encountered was my team getting off breakfast. All with these huge smiles on their faces. Since the case overview was going to be at 10 we had an hour to kill. How did we spend that hour? Like the past 4 days, cracking jokes and tearing up at Adriano’s impressions of Slavic ways of life. I truly felt like a part of the team. They were a really happy crew.
Then it was time for the case overview. From joyful to serious in seconds. I’ve never seen such dedication and motivation in my life. They rushed out of the conference room, every second counted. We ran through the fire escape because the elevator was taking too long. The sounds of work then followed up. Somehow, I knew they were going to kill the big case. I was rooting for them with all my heart.
I couldn’t believe I was feeling this way for 5 people I met just 4 days ago.
Then my shift started. Ten hours into the shift I started doing some push-ups just to keep me from falling asleep. Nothing worked…I dozed off for 10 minutes. When I woke up I saw 6 of my fellow Ambassadors along with colleagues from the IT department and the Head Organizer of the competition, Nina. “What happened? Why are you all here?”
Since it felt like I slept for hours, everything was blurry and slow paced. “The IT department got some IT of somebody trying to hack the system, and it came from this floor!”. “Impossible.”- I said. Since Ambassador Aleksandra and I were both taking shifts for our fellow Ambassadors they managed to convince me that because I had fallen asleep, some team snuck past me and used the Internet. To be honest- small heart attack.
Fifteen minutes in, they all hugged me and guess what- IT WAS A PRANK.
I said goodbye to my team informing them that my shift has ended and wished them good luck. The BBICC experience was, without a doubt, a life changing experience. To this day, I still am In contact with my team from Canada. I learned a lot from them but most importantly, become friends with the most wonderful people.
As I am writing this to you, I think I am experiencing post-BBICC depression.
It was that delightful.