Our school's team (of which I am a member) lost the regional competition in the semifinals yesterday.
Yeah, yeah. I can accept that.
What saddens me though is that after having done this for 3 years, I will never be able to do it again; I can never redeem myself.
[sob]
But the thing I'm hearing from my parents and others is that it's all a "learning experience".
It is. But that's not all it is. To say that it is all a "learning experience" is to totally miss the point.
If I wanted a learning experience, I could have done problems from a book, signed up for a class, or attended a super-special seminar.
I have a bit of a competitive streak (though definitely not as much as some people I know). I wanted to win, especially after last year's similar defeat in the regional semifinals.
Hence, I did Science Bowl. Quantum ElectroDynamics (QED).
Furthermore, Science Bowl requires one to learn a bunch of trivia that isn't really useful (until much higher-level applications) outside of Science Bowl itself. While I won't say that all that I have learned has suddenly become for nought, it saddens me that I don't get another chance at this.
I lost. If it was a learning experience, I could use the lessons of my failures in the competition the next time around.
Except, for me, there is no next time around. This means that Science Bowl can no longer be a learning experience for me.
So, the people who call it just a "learning experience" (to console me or whatever) are being willfully blind to the other half of the competition - the competition.
That said, I would like to see our future teams do well. I plan to talk to (and maybe even coach a little, given our actual coach's frequent absences) the 2 team members (both in 10th grade) who will be on the team next year on what to do then.
Hopefully, that will work out.
