Finally, a place where geek was chic!!!

NSCS. The National Society of Collegiate Scholars. That's the only thing I knew about this prestigious organization. From what I knew, it was "just another" national honor society. From what I knew, I thought it would be just a bunch of nerds gathering on college campus across the nation celebrating each other's brilliance and intelligence.

Needless to say, I was wrong, naive and very judging. I regret and repent for that.

Don't get me wrong, I am honored and very blessed to be a part of such a group, but I received my information in my school mailbox from an organization I had never heard of, expecting to pay a certain amount for membership to a group I knew nothing about. Needless to say, my parents were very thrilled and eagerly said I should be in this group. So I agreed.

The annual convention, this year's being in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was a scary idea for me. Going on this trip meant that I would be traveling to PR with hundreds of some of the smartest people in the nation. Alone. It's a little intimidating, and I consider myself to be somewhat friendly and sociable. Why am I here? On top of that, my past experiences with networking, job searching and the like were very poor and minimal.

Welcome to NSCS, Robby.

I was nervous, no doubt, but I kept telling myself that God would provide and help me out. So I was relaxed. On the outside at least.

Josh Shipp of MTV kicked off the festivities Thursday night. I liked him. Funny, smart, REAL. What I liked most about Josh was how much he wasn't like other motivational speakers that went on about themselves and then regurgitated that info to all of us. It was a real guy with real problems and a real personality. Bad things are gonna happen in your life, so stop complaing about your (or others') life. REAL. It's not what gets you in the room, but what keeps you in the room. REAL. You don't have to be perfect to make a difference, you just have to be willing to step out.

Cliche? Maybe. Real? Absolutely.

Byron Pitts of 60 Minutes fame spoke Friday morning. He wasn't a funny speaker like Josh, but I loved how he brought faith and God into the mix (obviously! lol) Referencing passages in Matthew, Joseph and Psalms seemed to make it a little more relatable (for me at least) and it made sense when put in that context. "There are two types of people in the world: humble and those that will be humbled." Brilliant!!!! Loved it.

And then God did His work. Standing in the line to meet Byron took a bit longer than expected. Already halfway late to the next session, I didn't want to awkwardly walk in alone. I came to find out that someone behind me in line was going to the same room as I was, so I waited for him to finish, so I could walk in with him. I'm not sure what it was, but we connected somehow. Something about being the only two late made the foundation for a friendship to grow. I don't know. I can't explain how God works. Call it fate or whatever you want, but I love it! PTL....Point being, he became one of my good friends at the convention. And from then, I got to meet a lot of people that I probably would never have met.

 I apologize to everyone that I went to school with years ago (JPS, AHS, EBS, WNS). I have been a horrible communicator to you all. I am awful at keeping in touch with you all and, as learned, I am destroying relationships in a sense that can help me down the road. They said it's best to contact old friends about once a month (if not more). I am not sure to this day why I couldn't ever do this, but I want to make a great attempt to keep in touch with people a LOT more. I am sorry.

Viva Puerto Rico! Thank you NSCS!