After the episode premiered, random people were coming up to me congratulating me on winning. It made me feel good that people were proud of me, especially friends and family who had watched the episode. Also, the school decided to replay the episode on a big screen the week after it aired, so more people could see it.

It was a nice feeling watching teachers and students gather around the screen to see our team in action. It really didn’t help that I was trying to avoid it, and I had to watch it every time I walked past the main office. It was weird having the episode on replay all the time, because people were recognizing me as I was walking by the TV. One thing I learned from this whole experience — I REALLY don’t like watching myself on TV.

We now have the opportunity to go back in mid-February, and hopefully win rounds two and three. I’ll talk about the experience of being back on set in the next article.