Ashley Douglas is a brand manager at The Richards Group. But she’s also a fierce texter. So fierce that she was the Dallas representative at the recent LG National Texting Championship. Spoiler alert: She did not win. After the jump, Ashley shares a bit of a recap of the trip to New York. And you can watch Mo Rocca’s video covering the event. (And, yes, I know I look a lot like Mo Rocca. I’m waiting for him to hit the big-time so I can be a Mo Rocca impersonator.) Enjoy.
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The championship was a lot of fun, well-organized, and a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. Of course I didn’t think I stood a chance. I was competing against mainly teenagers who are on summer break and have all day and night to practice. With a full-time job I found it very difficult to find time to do anything else but work.
As the Dallas Regional Champion I was awarded with a new LG enV2 and a free trip for two to New York (I brought a good friend of mine who had never been to the city before). That alone was a great prize, but on top of it I got to compete for $50,000! If I would have won, I was going to come back to Dallas and first throw a huge party. 🙂 Then, I was going to use the money to pay off student loans. As I said, I didn’t think I had a chance in hell at winning. In fact, I was interviewed by Fox and Friends before the competition and told them as much. They thought it was hilarious and thus cheered me on the whole time. However, I surprised everyone, even myself.
I didn’t think I was going to make it past the first round and I knew I would not beat the teenagers with my speed. (Have you seen how fast those 13-year-olds can text?!? I’ve never seen thumbs move so fast!!) I concentrated really hard on the first text and was shocked to find out that I won! Making it to the final round was the first time I actually thought I had a chance at $50K.
I was extremely nervous when the final text came upon the screen. I decided to take it phrase by phrase and not look ahead. Then, I heard the crowd moan and some people say, “Oh man! That sucks!” That’s when I knew I was done for. However, I plowed on through to the end and finished the text message in the nick of time. I was wrong by one letter!!! Can you believe that?!? I missed 50K by one letter!! I put Aba instead of Abc. Oh well. —Ashley Douglas
