***Posted by Jeff Ready, April 7, 2009
Hello!
I last competed in the National Geography Bee in 1994; the oldest competitors in this year’s Bee were busy being born that year. Despite all the time that has passed since then, I vividly remember the experience of competing. It’s something that’s fun to bring up occasionally, since it was such a fun and unique experience that very few others have ever had the honor to have. You’ll be telling your friends and children about these halcyon days, so appreciate and remember as much as you can.
As soon as I found out that the Bee existed, I was eager to compete in it. I knew growing up that I had a knack for geography, but I didn’t know how my knowledge really stacked up against anyone else’s. Winning the 1993 Maryland Geography Bee was my first confirmation that I really did know geography at a legitimately top level.
My life changed immeasurably at that point. Within minutes I was on the phone with a reporter from my local newspaper. I had never given an interview before, and I had no idea what to say. My picture and its accompanying story were on the front page of the next day’s edition. For the national competition, since I represented Maryland, I had the advantage (or disadvantage) of having the local media follow my whole Bee experience. I was continually being interviewed in the days leading up to, during, and after the national competition.
The point of this is not to bore you with the details of my National Geography Bee experience, since yours will be vastly different. The thing I’d like you to take away from my story is an appreciation for how this will prepare you for the rest of your life. Few kids are interviewed for their local papers or on the morning news. If you’re good and lucky enough to win your state, you’ll certainly have some sort of media attention. You won’t have any time at all to prepare for it; suddenly you’ll be giving interviews. I’m sure you’ll handle it well, and in doing so you’ll put yourself a thousand miles in front of your peers in terms of poise in the spotlight. There are many things that can’t be taught in a classroom, and that’s definitely one of those. When you’re confronted by the business end of a microphone, you’ll be in the extremely small fraction of people that won’t completely panic, and eventually you’ll begin to appreciate how much this means in life.
It’s all really fun when you’re winning, but nobody wins all the time forever. More important than learning how to handle sudden attention is learning how to handle sudden disappointment (and its bitter flavor of attention). After placing ninth in the 1993 National Geography Bee I was expected to make waves at the 1994 Maryland Geography Bee. I could feel the eyes on me as I made it through the preliminary rounds and into the finals. But I missed a pivotal question and placed second. The interviews were few that year, and that lack of attention stung. Some people say that your character is determined more by how you handle failure than by how you handle success. You are probably more familiar with success than failure at this point in your life. Try not to take up residence in failure, but always be a polite guest. Losing the 1993 Maryland Geography Bee was my first of a few visits there, and the experience shaped how I dealt with future disappointments.
I certainly didn’t know it at the time, but I’ve since realized that my National Geography Bee experiences taught me a lot that would serve me well in life. I’m happy to take any questions you have, and hopefully I’ll be allowed to post more blog entries. I promise that my next one will be a bit lighter. Cheers!
