National History Day 2008

"It's not just a day, it's an experience" That couldn't have been more true. It certainly was "an experience." Day, experience, whatever you want to call it, here's how it went:

I woke up at 5:30 AM. It was drizzling, though you couldn't really tell because it was still dark. I got up, put the snacks in a bag, ate breakfast, then went upstairs to change. I was planning to update my ipod, but at the last minute, it decided to erase all my songs. So I had less than an hour to import over 400 songs...better get started! From there, I re-straightened my hair which, not to my surprise, had curled up literally overnight. That took me a while, obviously. It was now about 6:15. I got dressed really fast: the bus was supposed to be leaving at 6:45. I didn't even have time to put my make-up on. I just threw everything in a bag and urged my mom along, who was also getting ready. She followed up on her wish to be a judge. We left the house at about 6:40. It was crunch time at this point. We raced through the wet, empty streets to pick up Marc-Anthony. Yeah. It was that dramatic.

We got to the school at literally 6:46. The bus was still in the parking lot. Thank goodness. Everyone was already on it at this point. Minor detail. Except for Mr. Rauschenbach. We were finally packed and ready to go. We pulled out of the parking lot, the rain already drenching the windows.

Assuming that there weren't any good eigth graders to talk to (boy were we wrong), we turned our attention to catching up with Mr. Rauschenbach. Which is always fun. I love that man. Best teacher ever. Of course we were talking to Justin Lapidus...or, rather, he was talking to us. He NEVER stops talking. But I love him. The anticipation mounted as we turned into the parking lot of St. Thomas Aquinas. All the old memories came flooding back. Especially when Mr. R relayed his "there are 25 of you and one of me" speech. We went in and stood on a rather long line to register. I hope you know I'm leaving some things out that really aren't important (<3) Then we went back out to the bus and unloaded all our things. They were all safe and sound in the bag. Or so we thought. As Mr. Rauschenbach was looking through all the process papers/bibliographies, we realized we didn't have ours. We began asking if anyone had laptops. We got a few responses but then realized we had nowhere to print them out. We had no choice but to go in and set up our project without them.

The exhibits were in the same place as last year but this time we had a terrible location. It was in the corner. Literally. We couldn't even fit it on the table, which was what we were going to do originally, because the ceiling was too low. But the exhibit looked pretty impressive. We then explained our process paper dilema to Rausch and he made a few suggestions. Ultimately, Kerianne called her dad to ask him to bring them all the way here. The whole 45 minute ride. he nobly agreed and we were saved. With that out of the way, we were off to size up the competition. They were pretty impressive. There were many more junior exhibits than seniors and we enjoyed looking at them, with topics ranging from gay rights to china's economy. The few senior exhibits we saw were EXTREMELY professional looking. Almost to the point where you would question their authenticity. It was stiff competition. We returned to our exhibit, where we had a sizable crowd of admirers, including some of Rausch's kids. We ended up talking to them and we met some really...nice kids =) We didn't have long to wait until the judged arrived. With the normal introductions and signatures out of the way, we stepped back and allowed them to look over our project. They asked a few questions which we answere very well, in my opinion. The male judge's only scrutiny was that he didn't like that we didn't have a concrete compromise, although we explained the situation well. Still without the process papers, we said that the fourth member of our group had a "family emergency" and that she had the process papers. They bought it and we bought ourselves some extra time. They walked away looking pleased.

We then had some downtime. Kerianne and Marc-Anthony played cards, we ate, I read and we chilled with the kids from Rausch's class. That was really fun. The process papers eventually made it and we were able to present them to the judges. In what seemed like no time, we were able to go over to the awards ceremony. However, we made a detour to investigate reports of ghosts in the girls bathroom....Anyway, we found some seats, I met my dad, and we proceeded to wait. And boy did we wait. Finally, the judges processed into the gym and the ceremony got under way. We listened as names were called and high-acheving youth stepped forward to accept their medals, symobls of their hard work and knowledge. I guess you could say they saved the best for last. They FINALLY got to senior group exhibits. After sizing up the competition, all we could hope for was third. And when they didn't call our named 3rd, we knew we were out of luck. As the ceremony came to a close and parents flocked to their precious winners, we looked around, severely disappointed. The general thought was "we wasted 6 months of our lives for nothing. Which is true. We walked back to the slowly thinning crowds of the exhibit hall and dismantled our project in a very melancholy manner. We walked to the bus in the rain and sat down in the cold, sticky seats that smelled like wet Doritos. Our moods were lifted by the bus ride, however. Like I said, the kids we met were lots of fun.

Back at the school, the kids packed up and got into their respective cars. I went home with Kerianne and we proceeded to recount and reflect on the "experience" of the day. Complete with ranting about the...nice kids we met =)

The day was not lost. We had a lot of fun, we gained valuable experiences, and we were able to see what it takes to suceed in the senior division. We won't be back next year, but who knows? Maybe someday....