Too early. That’s what kept people from coming. Of all the team members, Rushil and John Magz weren’t willing to show up at 6:45 AM to get in an ice cream van to Niles North for the Science Olympiad Regionals. The biggie. The Higgs.
Here I am, quietly reading about alternating current and men’s shoe size (not in that order), when all of a sudden a loud voice announces that I am the recipient of a medal. “WHAT THE HELL!?!”, I exclaim. As I awkwardly scramble over a metal handrail to the aisle to accept fifth place for Chemistry Lab, I think to myself, “Does this have anything to do with that teacher I saw Baker dangling over the second floor balcony?”
Minutes later, I’m finishing reading that same Wikipedia article about alternating current when I’m interrupted again. This time, it was second place for Rocks and Minerals. Pretty good for 17 guesses being “halite”. The trick is to pick the mineral sample that is the cheapest and most widely available to science teachers.
As you probably guessed, when the final team trophies were distributed, I was intently reading that same article, hoping for its magic to work again. Alas, no. We were but seventh, when sixth place and down gets to go to state. Oh well. At least most of the team won medals. And I’ve stumbled upon the secret to victory. I only need to print out that Wikipedia article and have every mathlete read it during awards.
The bad news they had for us was that there were no hotel rooms available at state because of that accursed Mathletes. Damn them and their state competition!
