Greetings from Spring Break 2012! I know many of my fellow MPA’s were on vacations much more exciting and exotic than mine, but I thought I would share my experience anyways.

I spent my first weekend home for Spring Break not lounging out in the Texas sun, but in a below freezing ice rink judging a local figure skating competition. For those of you who don’t know, I am a US figure skating judge and help judge at a handful of competitions each year. This particular competition I judged at was Showskate 2012 and was different than most figure skating competitions because the skaters are allowed to skate to music with lyrics and use props to help them interpret the music. The competition is great fun for everyone involved, and is very entertaining, thanks to the crazy routines skaters performed.

I love judging because I was a competitive figure skater for 12 years, and judging allows me to stay involved with the sport. I am a huge figure skating fan.

Interestingly enough, recruiting for an accounting internship has aligned with my interests quite well. At a Deloitte recruiting event a few weeks ago, Evan Lysacek (2010 Men’s Figure Skating Olympic Gold Medalist) came to speak. He was talking about overcoming his terrible performance at the 2010 National Championship and go on to win the gold in the Vancouver Olympics.

It was particularly fascinating for me to hear about how an Olympic gold medalist figure skater handled the stresses of the sport. When I was competing, I always had tremendous difficulty with handling the pressure of the moment. You are standing out there on the ice all by yourself, with no one else to blame if you don’t perform well. Knowing that every move you make is being intensely watched by judges and competitors looking for your mistakes, every limb suddenly seems to weigh 100 pounds. It was great to hear from Evan that I was not the only one affected by pressure at competitions.

I think that’s what has been most exciting about recruiting thus far: being able to meet some extraordinary people I wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to meet. Of course, not every recruiting event has Olympic and Paralympic athletes in attendance, but just hearing people’s stories indicate how many amazing people there are out in the world.

On that note, I hope everyone had a splendid Spring Break!