chicago 'o9
well, it's finally over. my eighth and final chicago. crazy.
friday i had three hours before driving to the church. after studying a ton in the car, we finally arrived in chicago and walked to the water tower, where i bought a sweet mug i fully intend to use for hot chocolate. then we went to ed debevic's, then to the hotel for the meeting. my team got red shirts. i was so happy they weren't pink! i was falling asleep at our team meeting, but yeah... went back to the room and hit the sack.
yesterday was good. headed over to the quiz early. we got 5 firsts and 1 second in the morning. we lost the first and won the second playoff round to land in the finals. in the finals, my teammate quizzed out, and i had the chance to put our team in a position to get first. i jumped on a key non-w, "by whom-" and got it wrong. i was so upset! i thought the correct answer TWICE and didn't say it. needless to say, it took me about fifteen minutes to get over it as opposed to the typical 1-2 minutes. it was not cool. but yeah. once the rational side of me returned, i realized that regardless of how i blew our shot at 1st, we still took 2nd, and hey, God could've easily had us at the bottom of the ranks after an awful quiz day and not had us in the finals at all. so i'm happy.
after the quiz i did an interview for a new promo video they're making, then we went to giordano's! SOOO delicious. then we went back to the hotel and basically hung out, playing catch phrase, cards, guitar, and etc until about 2 am. it was fun. and yup... im really tired.
today we had the world meeting, the regular meeting, and drove home. in the regular meeting i shared basically a bunch of encouragements for quizzers to keep on persevering and encouraging each other. quizzing's had a huge impact on my life, and it excites me to know that it is impacting others. i also got to tell them about a girl i met, Beth- she was so cool! she quizzed in a wheelchair and had a hand buzzer. she was 14th individually (i was 13th) and i was really excited i got to see her get her first trophy from nationals. but yeah, she was a really sweet girl. i'm excited that she wants to come back to quizzing- this was her first year, and it sounds like it was a good one. :-)
so yeah. basically, right now, my brain processes are as follows...
quizzing has been so awesome. i cant believe it's finally over. but it's not over- i still have world. i'm prolly gonna bawl after world. i kinda wanna bawl right now. it was awesome being around friends all weekend doing something that i love. it stinks that i have to go to school tomorrow where i have no friends. i wonder if i'll ever see some of these people again. i hope so. it's gonna be hard going out of state for college. it was so wierd going to chicago and not having a next year to look forward to for the first time, or having to buy next year's material. it's also weird to know they're quizzing next year on what i first started on. its kinda cool tho. it's like a new generation of kids are rising up to be impacted by the same stuff that shaped my life...
i hate goodbyes. but it sure is good to know these aren't real goodbyes. only see you later's.
friday i had three hours before driving to the church. after studying a ton in the car, we finally arrived in chicago and walked to the water tower, where i bought a sweet mug i fully intend to use for hot chocolate. then we went to ed debevic's, then to the hotel for the meeting. my team got red shirts. i was so happy they weren't pink! i was falling asleep at our team meeting, but yeah... went back to the room and hit the sack.
yesterday was good. headed over to the quiz early. we got 5 firsts and 1 second in the morning. we lost the first and won the second playoff round to land in the finals. in the finals, my teammate quizzed out, and i had the chance to put our team in a position to get first. i jumped on a key non-w, "by whom-" and got it wrong. i was so upset! i thought the correct answer TWICE and didn't say it. needless to say, it took me about fifteen minutes to get over it as opposed to the typical 1-2 minutes. it was not cool. but yeah. once the rational side of me returned, i realized that regardless of how i blew our shot at 1st, we still took 2nd, and hey, God could've easily had us at the bottom of the ranks after an awful quiz day and not had us in the finals at all. so i'm happy.
after the quiz i did an interview for a new promo video they're making, then we went to giordano's! SOOO delicious. then we went back to the hotel and basically hung out, playing catch phrase, cards, guitar, and etc until about 2 am. it was fun. and yup... im really tired.
today we had the world meeting, the regular meeting, and drove home. in the regular meeting i shared basically a bunch of encouragements for quizzers to keep on persevering and encouraging each other. quizzing's had a huge impact on my life, and it excites me to know that it is impacting others. i also got to tell them about a girl i met, Beth- she was so cool! she quizzed in a wheelchair and had a hand buzzer. she was 14th individually (i was 13th) and i was really excited i got to see her get her first trophy from nationals. but yeah, she was a really sweet girl. i'm excited that she wants to come back to quizzing- this was her first year, and it sounds like it was a good one. :-)
so yeah. basically, right now, my brain processes are as follows...
quizzing has been so awesome. i cant believe it's finally over. but it's not over- i still have world. i'm prolly gonna bawl after world. i kinda wanna bawl right now. it was awesome being around friends all weekend doing something that i love. it stinks that i have to go to school tomorrow where i have no friends. i wonder if i'll ever see some of these people again. i hope so. it's gonna be hard going out of state for college. it was so wierd going to chicago and not having a next year to look forward to for the first time, or having to buy next year's material. it's also weird to know they're quizzing next year on what i first started on. its kinda cool tho. it's like a new generation of kids are rising up to be impacted by the same stuff that shaped my life...
i hate goodbyes. but it sure is good to know these aren't real goodbyes. only see you later's.