Ah... Quizzing.
That one word embodies more of my life, memories,
personality, theology, world view, etc. then I think even I realize. Sometimes I like
to think I'm a legend. I'm really
not. If there were a comprehensive book
of quizzing history, my name might show
up here and there, from 1994-1998. If
you found my picture, the most likely scenario is that I'd be crying with
glitter running down my face. But
someone was kind enough to say these words to me the other day: "You have stories no one else has to
tell - And that's what legends are made of". And it's true. I do
have those kinds of stories. I'm not
particularly interested in dusting them off, just now, but I know they lurk
somewhere beneath the surface... far beneath the surface... and well, what's
done is done.
Yesterday, as I was watching Seth and Grace quiz through the
windows, and observing the activity all around me in the hallways, it occurred
to me that some things never change.
When you quiz well, you often become a statistic (this is probably true
when you do anything competitive well).
When I was a quizzer, there was always a lot of buzz on the district regarding points and win/loss records and standings. However, a lot of us were pretty good friends, too. I often think back to one particular day when I passed my friend Robb in the hallway and asked, "How are you doing?" He answered with his average for the day, and I stopped cold and said, "I meant how are you doing as a person, not a number." We both kind of chuckled and talked for a few minutes.
When I was a quizzer, there was always a lot of buzz on the district regarding points and win/loss records and standings. However, a lot of us were pretty good friends, too. I often think back to one particular day when I passed my friend Robb in the hallway and asked, "How are you doing?" He answered with his average for the day, and I stopped cold and said, "I meant how are you doing as a person, not a number." We both kind of chuckled and talked for a few minutes.
There are not too many people out there who are more
competitive than I am (although I suppose I might be married to one, and
perhaps we're raising a couple more).
So... let me rephrase that. There are not too many people out there who
are more competitive that we are...
our family... that's just how we roll.
This is, of course, one of the reasons that quizzing captured us, so
completely, and became an amazing vehicle for memorizing Scripture and applying
it to our lives. But I want this to be
fun for S & G (and for "the babies" as they get older, too). I want them to make friends and to care about
people. I want them to learn about
teamwork and goals, winning and losing with grace (uh... the virtue, not the
person). I want them to have so much
Scripture crammed into their heads that they can't help but turn to it when a
real life situation requires it. I want
this to be transformational for them.
And I think it will be. And I know
it already is.
Back to the numbers for just a moment, though. Yesterday I had the privilege of coaching
Grace in her first Top 16 quiz off.
Truthfully, I am a good coach. However, I defer this responsibility to Phil
most of the time, because he is a phenomenal
coach. But yesterday called for both
of us, because Seth and Grace made
the top 16. Grace went in 6th and Seth
went in 13th. In my mind, this put Grace
in a pretty decent position to make the Top 10, and it was just going to depend
on how things went down with Seth. If
you've ever quizzed or coached in a Top 16, you know that the competition
standards escalate dramatically. Jump
aggressively and hope to pull it out.
Score positive points every round.
You might have a chance. This is
the point at which you have to rely on the knowledge you have. Going in, I knew that Grace had roughly half
of all of the material memorized, plus all of the memory verses (and she had,
of course, studied the rest, as well).
Seth is harder to read. He
doesn't walk up to me in the evening and just start quoting whole chapters, but
if you listen to his answers in practice, you know he has more down solidly
than you would guess, because they are often word for word from the
Scripture. He is also not afraid to
error, which is a huge asset in high
level competition situations, because the kids who are afraid to error just
never get jumps. Occasionally, this
backfires on him (and all good quizzers), and yesterday during the morning
rounds was kind of like that. Question
selection is key, but he's in 7th grade!
Sometimes I forget this!
After one round, Grace was in 2nd place and Seth had leapt
to 4th. This was encouraging, but there
was still much room for caution. I know,
all too well, how easy it is to fall from 2nd place all the way out of a position
on the team. If the butterflies in
Grace's stomach were killing her (as she exclaimed), mine felt more like piranhas!
After two rounds, Grace had slipped to 3rd and Seth to 6th. Grace had a rough round, a rough call, and a
lot of tears. This mama (who, remember,
spent most of my quizzing years crying), had to encourage her to "suck it
up", even in the midst of my own escalating blood pressure!
In round three (final round), Grace got up to appeal
something, and the attitude that came through just screamed "Lisa,
1995". At this moment, I thought to
myself, "Oh... I hope the
quizmaster and content judge remember that she, too, is a 7th grader!"
As much time as we have spent working on memorization, jumping, making
relationships with other quizzers, Bible study, technique, and spiritual
formation; we have not had the time to begin to get challenges, rebuttals, and
appeals dealt with. In a few years, I
fully expect that Grace (and Seth too) will deliver them beautifully, with
accurate information and reasoning, and a whole lot of respect for the
authority of the quizmaster. Patience is
a virtue here... Her appeal was not
accepted. Then, another quizzer
challenged a correct ruling, against her, but something finally fell her way, and that one was overruled.
So, after three rounds, Grace had retaken 2nd and Seth had also retaken 4th.
I am just a little bit amazed by them! I probably shouldn't be in shock or
anything. They have worked so hard.
And now they have a couple more weeks to cram in some more material and
fine tune some skills! St. Louis, here
we come!
L.
