YAAAAAY!!!!!! :D :D :D

Hey everyone! Today our school Science Olympiad team competed at the regional Science Olympiad competition today, and we had a BLAST!!! Meteorology for the most part was really easy (it was easy last year too XD), and we barely even had to use our cheat sheets (unlike tests in class, you can bring sheets to use as a reference in certain Science Olympiad events). Reach for the Stars was rather... interesting. Some of the constellations were really hard to identify because the people coaching the event showed actual pictures of the constellations in space instead of pictures of the constellations with lines drawn between the stars. Not only that, but for all the questions at a particular station my partner and I had to make educated guesses. We kinda stunk at Write It Do It, for neither my partner (who was different from my partner for Reach for the Stars) nor I were very experienced with pipe-cleaners. :l

Anyways, we were at the Awards ceremony at the end of the day, and they announced which teams got 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place for each event. They listed these rankings for each event in alphabetical order, so Meteorology came first. It turned out that my partner and I got 3rd place! We walked up to the stage to get our medals as many people took pictures of us. :P A few minutes later, they announced the rankings for Reach for the Stars. 2nd and 3rd place both went to teams that ALWAYS win medals for EVERY SINGLE EVENT (they are actually 2 teams from the same school, and usually what happens is they win the regional and state competitions and get 2nd or 3rd place at nationals), and 4th place went to another team, so my Reach for the Stars partner and I automatically knew we didn't earn a medal. I was telling my partner we did a good job, when.... THE HOST ANNOUNCED OUR SCHOOL AS HAVING WON THE GOLD MEDAL (1st place) FOR REACH FOR THE STARS!!!!!!!!! OMG the whole team was COMPLETELY SHOCKED!!! Even our coach's mouth dropped!!! Surely there must've been a MISTAKE!!! Of course, there wasn't, and my partner and I walked to the stage shocked and exhilarated at the same time to receive our medals. :D I had NEVER received higher than 4th place in ANY event!!!! :D :D :D :D YAAAAY!!!! Even though our team didn't make it to the state competition, I am extremely happy I received the rankings I did in these events. :D Later I learned we ranked 16th place out of 22 teams in Write It Do It, but oh well. :P

This was also my last year with my current Science Olympiad team (I'm going to high school next year), and though I am going to truly miss all the amazing friends I made on this team, I will never forget all the ecstatic memories we experienced together as a team. I will also make sure to use the skills I have learned to my advantage when I join my high school's Science Olympiad team.

I believe we can all learn a valuable lesson from this experience: anything is possible when you try your hardest to push your way past the obstacles you may encounter in order to achieve a certain goal. I also have a message to send to all those planning on joining my middle school's Science Olympiad team in the future: NEVER give up. Even when something seems impossible to achieve, use all of your resources. Look within yourself; you CAN do it! You just have to believe you can and take action to achieve your desires.

Here is a song that relates to this rather nicely. :)

I DO NOT own this video. All credit goes to The Script and the creator of the video.

That's all for now, and have an amazing night! :D