I was tired...

[greybeta]

In high school, the one thing that I immensely cared about was Quiz Bowl. You know, the whole trivia team thing with buzzers. It was one thing I excelled at and enjoyed. I could do the mental math thing, I had a pretty good knowledge of world capitals and geography, and I was good at memorizing lists. Unfortunately, we never got past our rival school Northside (there were so many close calls). But I was the captain of Southside's first team to capture the state Science Bowl (a similar trivia more focused on science questions), which will probably remain as my biggest legacy there.

I visited my old high school yesterday, and it's nice to be remembered (well, graduating number one in your class certainly helps). I have to admit that it's a pretty cool feeling to be a legend in the Quiz Bowl program. While there are a lot of stories about me, I found out there is one particular legend that my old coach now tells all the new Quiz Bowlers.

From the skipper's point of view (we called our old coach skipper for some odd reason)...
In my first year as head coach, our captain was a Vietnamese guy named Daniel Tu. He was good at a lot of things, but one thing he could do was factor math equations. Normally, when you factor, you have to write the equation down to do it. Daniel was a bit different. We were in an official scrimmage against Van Buren, and he played even though he was tired from practicing in the play (I was playin the part of Mr. Potter's Secretary in It's a Wonderful Life). For the entire match, he had his head down in his folded arms because he was so tired. A factoring question comes up, and before everyone finishes writing the equation down, he buzzes in. Daniel sticks his head up, says the right answer, and plops his head back down. The other team was just floored by it. The beauty of it was that we told them that he was tired. Just imagine if he was fully awake!

So I come back and some random sophomore (just to note, my high school goes from sophomores to seniors) asks "Is that the guy?"

Yep, you better believe it.

Comments

[xzarakizraiia.livejournal.com]

I can't factor.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Such a pity! Oh well, a TI-89 can factor just fine. And do partial fractions. :)

[tu-nenay-08.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel! I was never a super smart person, but everyone in music remembered me and it was so nice! People remember me as the girl who didn't make a metro area choir, but went on later that year to make All-State and A National honor choir!

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

'Tis a good feeling indeed.

[culculhen.livejournal.com]

Aaah It's always good to be remembered. (ego boost, ego boost)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Nah, my head isn't any bigger than it was before. I think.