My dear friend's daughter turned 18 yesterday. Eighteen! Where has time gone? She is a beautiful girl in every way. I admire her and have learned much from her. I am blessed to know this amazing young lady. Yesterday was a day to celebrate her and her 18 years, but it also was a day to reflect on the passing of the days,
the months,
the years.
I am always aiming to improve myself, to become better and more knowledgeable, more kind and compassionate, less selfish and stubborn. Time is my friend in this, and it is my enemy. One day I will awake and be saddened by mistakes I have made, ones that may too late to correct. I will not, however, regret the time I am spending as a mom.
Thanks for the day to realize this, you sweet girl of 18, and your sweetest mother of not-much-older. :)
I am going to leave his hand-prints on the windows a little longer, and play peek-a-boo with him instead. Those messy marks of one who will be grown in a blink will remind me of what I am doing here.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
NerdFest
Every year, I volunteer my time to score essays at the state Academic Decathlon competition. Having participated on the team many moons ago, I enjoy spending a few hours helping, so that the students may compete. When we had an Acadec reunion a few years ago, my then-fiance husband remarked that I was going to the nerd fest. I rebuked him, then, and corrected him to the term geek, per the definitions of both labels. Although I pretended to be offended (how dare you!), I fondly declare myself both a geek and a nerd and am honored to be among these types.
Anyway, the geek/nerd thing was only reinforced when I showed up to score these essays. What are twenty-six adults doing on a Friday night reading the words of high school students? For free? Well, we did get "dinner," which was more of a boxed lunch. The chocolate chip cookie was perfect, soft and chewy, but the rest of the meal left much to be desired. I must say, we are not the coolest cats out there. I even travelled four hours, one way, to participate.
At my table, six of us sat. My good friend, who read forty essays that night, sat to my right. She won the contest. The very fact that we had a contest attests to our nerdiness. We also kept track of how many wrote on each of the three prompts and then figured out the percentages. We snickered at some students' witticisms and groaned at others' misspellings. We laughed aloud when one decathlete decided to use asides in his/her essay, shared the invented words of another, and we prayed that the essay in our hands would be one with subject matter from the less-chosen prompts. When it did happen, we rejoiced with each other, exclaiming, "I got a prompt two!" Wow. Geeks.
One man at our table had the answers for everything, from why a student scored the way he did to how the essays should be handled. He was the nerdiest of us all, I believe. A computer programmer and know-it-all, I did enjoy battling with him when I could, and when I had the energy.
The man in charge was a control freak, with three colored folders on each table to "help" us stay organized: purple for never-read, red for once-read, and green for finished. Thanks so much. It is so hard to figure out. The shades of organization truly made everything progress so much more smoothly. When "dinner" time arrived, Nazi essay guy shouted, "Stop right where you are! It is time to get your food." I abruptly sat upright, slammed my pencil down, and reverted back to my Scantron-testing days.
Wandering to find our nourishment, we encountered the younger nerds, looking dapper in their suits and dresses, competing on this night, what they have been preparing for all this year. They impress me every time, these scholars who study and learn and deliver an oft-practiced speech. They are the reason I continue to do this.
Well, that, and I am a nerd.
Anyway, the geek/nerd thing was only reinforced when I showed up to score these essays. What are twenty-six adults doing on a Friday night reading the words of high school students? For free? Well, we did get "dinner," which was more of a boxed lunch. The chocolate chip cookie was perfect, soft and chewy, but the rest of the meal left much to be desired. I must say, we are not the coolest cats out there. I even travelled four hours, one way, to participate.
At my table, six of us sat. My good friend, who read forty essays that night, sat to my right. She won the contest. The very fact that we had a contest attests to our nerdiness. We also kept track of how many wrote on each of the three prompts and then figured out the percentages. We snickered at some students' witticisms and groaned at others' misspellings. We laughed aloud when one decathlete decided to use asides in his/her essay, shared the invented words of another, and we prayed that the essay in our hands would be one with subject matter from the less-chosen prompts. When it did happen, we rejoiced with each other, exclaiming, "I got a prompt two!" Wow. Geeks.
One man at our table had the answers for everything, from why a student scored the way he did to how the essays should be handled. He was the nerdiest of us all, I believe. A computer programmer and know-it-all, I did enjoy battling with him when I could, and when I had the energy.
The man in charge was a control freak, with three colored folders on each table to "help" us stay organized: purple for never-read, red for once-read, and green for finished. Thanks so much. It is so hard to figure out. The shades of organization truly made everything progress so much more smoothly. When "dinner" time arrived, Nazi essay guy shouted, "Stop right where you are! It is time to get your food." I abruptly sat upright, slammed my pencil down, and reverted back to my Scantron-testing days.
Wandering to find our nourishment, we encountered the younger nerds, looking dapper in their suits and dresses, competing on this night, what they have been preparing for all this year. They impress me every time, these scholars who study and learn and deliver an oft-practiced speech. They are the reason I continue to do this.
Well, that, and I am a nerd.
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