Sis had a geography competition at her school last month. She won. We were all shocked, since she had only glanced at the study sheet the night BEFORE the competition! Since she won, she moved onto the District Geography Challenge. Once again, she waited until the night BEFORE the competition to look at the study sheet. So frustrating, but someday she will learn that procrastination causes stress! :)
We showed up to the Challenge, and they didn't even have Bailia down as a competitor! Apparently, our school forgot to call the district to let them know that Bailia was their representative! Once they got that all straightened out we all took our seats. There were 17 kids competing, Bailia was number 16. When they called her up, she looked at the screen and immediately knew the answer~she glanced at me with the biggest grin. I quickly mouthed FOCUS, as the question was read. She faced the microphone and with all of the nervousness of the challenge, and the excitement of knowing the answer, she said it backwards! They told her that it was wrong and she said WHAT? No it's not! If you know Bailia, you can picture this scenario perfectly. She knew she had the right answer, but she didn't even realize she had said it backwards! It was really sad. The rules state that you get one shot, that's it.
Alligator tears welled up in her eyes, as she took her seat. I wanted to run up to her and give her a big hug, but she had to sit there with the rest of the students. Then the tears turned to anger when the next boy to miss an answer (he only gave half of the answer) was allowed to continue on when the crowd cheered that half an answer was good enough. She turned to look at me with a look that said "that is TOTALLY not fair!" I agreed, but what could I do? She was still awarded with a certificate and a gift card to Pasta Factory. She didn't care, she's a competitor, and competitors love to win. Jdog told her, at least you weren't the first one out! Imagine how the first seven people felt that got out before you!! That calmed her a little bit.
Then I decided a treat was needed to congratulate her for even making it to the district challenge! So we stopped by Krave, on the way home and ate a yummy frozen yogurt with oodles of fruit toppings! After we finished she said, thanks mom~that really helped me feel better.
