So… the regional children’s quiz. It was a great weekend full of fun times and catching up with old friends, which is always good. And like most of my life’s events, I didn’t set out to learn anything about myself on this trip, but I did anyway…
We left the house around 2:00 and arrived at Olivet in plenty of time to register. We stayed on campus at the apartments that used to be such a hot commodity and now make me laugh… sort of… except the itty bitty bathrooms… How do four college aged girls share a bathroom that size for a whole year? We unpacked, turned the air conditioning to high, and headed out in search of dinner, which we found at Coyote Canyon… pretty yummy, although the older I get, the less I seem to be able to stuff myself at buffets (which is probably a good thing). After a quick trip to Target where we bought Toy Story socks at one spot (in case we had to bowl instead of mini golf), we were off to Hidden Cove.
Overall, this was a fun experience. The arcade…maybe not so much. But the mini golf course was great, and there was a lot that we would have liked to explore there given more time. I golfed a stellar 70… on 18 holes… one handed… with Miah in the wrap… probably the worst score I’ve ever had, but it was still a fun challenge!
We got in super late… crashed… (Phil brought me a huge Cherry Pepsi that I woke briefly to enjoy)… and then woke up early to start all over again!
After breakfast (which ended up being a few bites of a pancake, Lucky Charms, and some mandarin oranges for me), it was time for the kids to get seated for the quiz. I ran (sort of) over in the sprinkling rain with Grace, Ian, and Miah, and as we got to the building it dawned on me that I’d left the quiz boxes in the van… uh… big oops! I called Phil, who dropped Seth and Caleb off with me and then went to get the boxes. I think we had about 30 seconds to spare… In all of this fun, I also dropped my apartment key and then had to go up to the stage to retrieve it… talk about embarrassing, but at least I got to snap a quick pic. of Seth and Grace (the parents had already been told to leave the quiz area and to take pictures later)!
The quizzing began… and I proceeded to shove animal crackers (“Buffalos”) into Caleb and Ian’s mouths after every question for three rounds to keep them quiet. This was a good plan. The Buffalo thing made Ian giggle, though…
At the end of the quiz, Seth and Grace had each missed one question in each round. Grace was OK with that. You never really know what you’re going to get with Grace. This is the child that begged the scorekeeper to mark her wrong at the state quiz, because she thought she’d errored! On the other hand, she was also so nervous before the global quiz last summer that I thought she’d surely bomb the whole thing, and she ended with a perfect day there… Depending on her mood, she might be happy with how she quizzes… or she might be outraged… but today she was all good…
And then there was Seth, who handled everything pretty well through the first and second rounds but was just overcome with frustration when he errored on the last question of the third round, keeping him from having even one perfect round today (even though he has consistently racked up perfect rounds and even perfect days throughout the year). Although I’m not going to tell him this (he’s a pretty smart kid and may have figured it out on his own already, anyway), that last error also kept him out of the top 10 judging from the score that my friend’s son had, which put him in. When the trophies were awarded, we went into breakdown mode, and Phil found Seth crying between a drinking fountain and a wall…
Seth is his mother’s child… because I’m not sure I ever made it through a quiz at which I didn’t cry… sometimes in obscure places on the floor somewhere… and that was teen quizzing! (‘Course… I guess it wouldn’t be my legacy if there wasn’t some sort of controversy, now would it? At least I didn't have to break into any buildings this time...)
It’s funny, though, because even with my history, I am kind of a “suck it up” Mom. It’s probably a good thing that Phil went looking for Seth and found him, because I am sure he handled it better than I would have, and heck… he even managed to get Seth to return to the auditorium for a team picture with Toby the Tiger. So… I’m thinking that’s standing ovation worthy… yeah Dad!
Now what I have to say next could probably be taken wrong, and the fact is, it probably will be taken wrong by somebody, even though I am adding this disclaimer… I am so proud of my kids! I am proud of everything they do, and I am proud of the people they are becoming. But I understand the frustration when things don’t go the way they’d planned. I am not saying that I would have been any more proud of either one of them if they’d placed in the top 10 or scored a little better and pushed their team into the top 3. But I understand the competitive drive to do so, and I’m OK with it if they cry when they don’t come out on top (as long as they don’t become a serious distraction or hurt others in the process… that I’m not OK with).
I think this stems from the fact that (here comes that “things I learn about myself without wanting to” moment) all my life I was good at everything I did (except T-ball… I sucked at T-ball), but I was never “the best”. And I always wanted to be the best. And naturally, I now want my kids to be the best.
And so I’m sitting there thinking about this when I look up at the stage and see Grace sitting on the edge of it… which took me back to another time and place (just across campus) when I sat down on the edge of a similar stage… And then I look over at Caleb and think about the steely concentration in his eyes just a few days ago when I reminded him that he could quiz next year followed by, “you’ll be good at it,” and he said, “yes I will”. And I wonder if I’ve created a monster… or two… or three… or four… or five… (enough for a full quiz team, you know...)
And may I re-state… for better or for worse, I see myself in these guys… And I’m OK with that, too…
Lisa
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