Bee Your Best

Today was the state geography bee. Matthew has been studying like mad. He felt prepared but was pretty nervous as well. They broke the kids into smaller groups (five groups of about 20 kids) and all of them got to compete for the first eight rounds. Points were totaled at that point and the top twenty kids went to the finals. Matthew did not move on to the finals, but we felt like he did a great job. He gave some correct answers to some pretty tough questions and kept his cool throughout. He was one of the youngest kids (the bee is grades 4-8 and only about 20 of the kids were grades 4-5) but I really felt like he held his own. A couple more years of school that include a lot of the curriculum that he hasn’t learned yet and he could definitely be a contender.

I’m so proud of how hard he has worked to prepare for this event. He has learned to think through the stress of the spotlight and to apply logic when he doesn’t know the answer. That is really tough to do in the heat of the moment. He has gained some valuable skills and given this opportunity his best effort. I look forward to seeing how he does next year. He’s already thinking about next year as well.

Since this is Matthew’s shining moment, I asked him to give me his two cents on the whole thing:

The National Geography Bee was a big thing for me. In 4th grade I was in it, but I only made it through the second round. I had none right, but that didn’t stop me from trying again. This year I went from nothing to something, I jumped over the fence. In other words, I got 1st place. One of the most amazing questions was a total guess that kept me in the game. It was to the effect of, “blah blah K-pop is popular in Seoul blah blah?” At first, I just said, “Korea.” But they asked me to specify. I guessed again and said, “South Korea.” I thought I would get it wrong, but then I heard,” Correct”, followed by what sounded by an explosion. The whole gym had gone absolutely crazy. I’m so glad everyone supports everyone. It was a good experience. The next day I took the test to see if I would make it to the state level and in about 5 weeks we got the email, I had made to the state level. By now I was freaking out. I made quite a few phone calls. Later in time, it’s the 6th. I’m stressed out of my mind. I get there and miss one of the easiest questions. “Which has more military force? Michigan or Hawaii?” I answered Michigan. That’s the one that kept me from going on to the finals. I had one more amazing save, where I found out something about myself. It was a news round and I news story I hadn’t heard. I found out that I can sometimes realize French when spoken to me. That was very interesting. Although I was very disappointed, I still felt accomplished, and I still had fun.