Recently, I had the privilege of representing Cistercian at a middle school MathCounts competition.  My friends and I had a blast traveling to the tournament, and being able to show our math skills there.

The drive down was much more enjoyable than expected. Along the way, we stopped at a gas station and bought some junk food for our hotel room. Once we arrived at the hotel, we hung out in the room, watched TV, and then went to dinner.  Because it was a Friday in Lent, we ate fried catfish and popcorn shrimp, both of which were delicious.

When we got back to the hotel we practiced math with Dr. Newcomb and Mr. Erickson, and actually enjoyed ourselves.  Then we went back to our room and played cards for almost two hours.  The evening experience was and awesome. The only drawback was that lights had to be out by ten thirty. We woke up early the next morning (6:15!), only to be greeted by a pitiful hotel breakfast. The food was terrible, so we all ended up eating cereal and toast.

The contest itself followed, a monstrosity which we were there to vanquish. It was the hardest MathCounts contest I’ve ever participated in by a long shot, and I think I speak safely by saying that this opinion is common to the rest of the team. Despite the challenge, it was still fun to be present there with my friends.

After the morning contest, we had a lunch break. Since breakfast had been awful, we expected a similar quality of lunch. We were pleasantly surprised, however; they served spaghetti and meatballs with garlic breadsticks. We all gorged ourselves.

Following lunch, we had to attend the awards ceremony, during which they announced the top scorers of the competition. At the ceremony, they gave out ten laptops to notable individuals, one of whom was Dr. Newcomb. I felt proud to witness Dr. Newcomb as he took the computer and received such recognition.

When presenting the computers, they were awkwardly playing You’re the Inspiration by Chicago. It isn’t a bad song, yet it was terribly presented.

After the awards ceremony was the countdown round (a small tournament where they give the top scorers math problems and the first to get the questions right wins). None of the Cistercian players were in it, but it was still enjoyable to watch.

With the competition finished, it was finally time to head back. Looking back on the experience, it was definitely worth the while to make the trip, not only for the contest but also for the fun that we had. The adventure left me extremely happy and hoping that I would get more opportunities to go on similar school trips in the future.