In this volume, I am continuing the series of contributions from our 2024 National Avian Bowl Champions.

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I greatly enjoyed my trip to Kentucky. It allowed me to grow closer to my Avian Bowl teammates.   I also met people from across the country who share a love of birds. As part of the California State Avian Bowl Team with Ean Ramirez, Melanie Sechrist and Sammy Belik, I was able to win Nationals. Winning was the goal of the trip and we realized our dream, after putting in a lot of hard work.  However, my favorite part of the trip was connecting with the people around me. 

One of the special moments occurred when we were about to start the competition. It started snowing. As Southern Californians who never experience snow at home, my teammates and I couldn’t help but run outside. It was barely snowing, but we were ecstatic and so was the Florida team. The snow allowed us to connect with a team we barely knew over the pure joy that the snow brought all of us. When we went back inside, teams from states that experience snow regularly laughed, but even that allowed us to connect with those kids through laughter. I am so grateful for this trip for creating so many opportunities.  People from across the country connected through our differences and similarities, at a time when we so often let our differences divide us. 

                                       -Zuzu Haring