All We Got Were T-Shirts

My daughter Lamb took part in the Science Olympiad this last weekend. It was a first for her. I ended up being a volunteer in the younger groups' flowering plants event.

Lamb's team did not win a medal for her event. She seemed fine, but I felt awful for her. But it was a good experience. It was tough going in with no event experience and with no idea what she faced in the competition. Most of the other schools had experienced preparation programs that work.

Lamb felt good about how she did, but we'll never know if it was a close call for a medal, or not.

Had I known more about this competition and known about the lack of trophies in the school science fair earlier this year, I would have done extra work with Lamb on the competition rather than making her do so much work on the science fair.

Oh well. Life has disappointments. And I'm not worried that this will affect her college applications. In time, her school will have the experience to field a larger contingent with more knowledge of what to expect.

I helped run one of the events. It was perfect for me since I could not inadvertently help any of the little kids. Oh, I surely did want to help them! But I held fast and didn't let even a few tears let me give one team an advantage over another. I did my best within the limits of the contest and my role.

At one point, the woman in charge mentioned that few kids seemed able to identify the Daffodil. "Oh great," I said, "Now I know something and have to make sure I don't tell any team to 'go stand by the Daffodils.'"

But I didn't. So nobody had to kill me.

At least we have the t-shirts. Although we paid for them. And a couple lovely Daffodils stand on Lamb's desk, now.