I Was Today Years Old When I Learned What Yu-Gi-Oh Is

From dancing with my coach to embarrassing myself in front of a Congressman, here’s what happened at the Trending Up conference.

I’m overwhelmed. In the best way.

Grateful, happy, still a little shaky from how full my heart feels after spending four days in Washington, D.C. for Trending Up, a conference for content creators focused on talking about causes we care about.

I got to be in the same room as people who inspire me in completely different ways. People who give a damn. People who create with purpose.

And I finally met my coach, Lissette Calveiro, in person after working together for three years. I really thought I was going to cry. I didn’t, but we did do a little dance for joy.

lissettecalv

A post shared by @lissettecalv

And then, this happened.

I was told about an hour beforehand that I’d get to interview Rep. Maxwell Frost. One of my favorite members of Congress. No pressure, right?

My brain went into full panic mode. My English hadn’t fully turned on yet! I ran back to my room, took something for my anxiety, and then my incredible friends,

Pari & Eve, MPH

and

Lindsay Meyer-Harley

, helped me pull together a few questions. They gave me hugs and encouragement and reminders that I could do this.

Then… I made a fool of myself.

Earlier that day, Rep. Frost had talked about playing bongos and timbales. He also said he played something called Yu-Gi-Oh with a YouTube creator once and did pretty well. I didn’t even know how to spell this word, so I couldn’t look it up.

Naturally, when it was my turn to talk to him, my first question was, “Oh, what kind of instrument is that?”

It’s a card game.

I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me.

This is where Spanish would’ve saved me. In Spanish, we say you “touch” an instrument and “play” a card game.

But anyway… later that day, I was on a panel talking about how you can actually get paid as a content creator. Thank goodness I had some friends in the audience giving me faces to remind me to breathe. And I had two friends on the panel with me who made me feel grounded and safe.

I attended more sessions, cheered for my friends on their panels, soaked up new ideas, and got more hugs in four days than I usually do in an entire Colombian Christmas season. It was everything.

Also… I got to see Elizabeth Warren in person. Maybe five or six meters away?

I didn’t pass out, but I definitely smiled like an idiot the entire time she spoke. Look at my face, you can almost see the little hearts in my eyes.

This is exactly why I could never play poker. You’d know right away if I had a good or bad hand. Maybe Yu-Gi-Oh is my destiny after all.

And then, on day two, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg walked in.

Deep breath.

This man is already one of the most articulate people I’ve ever seen speak. You want to listen to every word because you know you’re going to learn something. And now, he delivers those words with this new beard that just… I mean… it’s a lot. It’s distracting.

Just looking at the photo again, I’m blushing. My cheeks are as red as the backdrop behind him.

Anyway…. I’m 99% sure that if he ever said hi to me, I would forget how to speak English, forget my own name, and just run away.

So yeah… what a week.

And now that you know the full story and the chaos going on in my head that day… here it is.

My first-ever interview with a member of Congress.

Totally panicked. Definitely made a fool of myself for not knowing what Yu-Gi-Oh was, but at least I can laugh about it now.

Here’s the video. I hope you enjoy it (and maybe laugh at me/with me just a little).