an unexpected proud moment

today i barely missed a call from the boys' school. i wondered to myself why, a bit afraid that the boys were possibly hurt or sick. i listened to the message; Brandon was letting me know that he had made the preliminaries for the school geography bee, which was going to happen at one o' clock this afternoon. a couple of days ago, i'd seen on his weekly newsletter that two girls from his class had made the finals for it. i found out later that if you were in the finals, you got at least(?) 5 out of 7 correct. and to be in the preliminaries, you got 4 out of 7 correct...and there was a 26-way tie among the grades involved (4th-7th)! me and Autumn got there shortly before Brandon was the first to be called to the stage for the preliminary round. i can't remember (and neither can Brandon) how many questions were asked, maybe about five...? (it was single elimination.) almost the next thing i know, Brandon has made it to the finals--one of two out of 26 kids! he joined the other 8(?) already-established finalists and that round began. (it was double elimination.) Brandon was only one of two (i'm mostly sure he wasn't the only one) who got his first question correct! the next (i think) question they all had to answer stood out to me...it named Myrtle Beach, described it pretty briefly, and then queried "in what state is Myrtle Beach located?" i had to chuckle to myself when the kids revealed their white boards (on which they'd written their answers). two (if i remember correctly) had written WYOMING and there were at least a couple more who had written some other land-bound state...!! i realize that these kids are still learning about geography, but even Ethan, a 2nd grader, knows that Wyoming isn't on a coast! i thought, "these poor, sheltered Utah kids raised by Utah (or some other state right close by) grown parents who haven't traveled east of the Colorado or west of Las Vegas!" rather presumptuous of me, i know, but hopefully you get my point. oh, one boy did answer the question correctly. and good ol' Brandon wrote down Florida. :) you can't blame him, right? about that time, Autumn needed to go to the bathroom (more details on that in the next post) and Brandon was at the end of the line, and they were at the beginning when we scurried out of the gym to use the restroom, so i was hoping we wouldn't miss his question. just as we stepped through the door back into the gym, however, i could tell we'd missed his question, but Brandon looked quite happy and then i heard the principal saying that B had made it to the championship, so he didn't need to answer any more questions until they got third place and his competitor figured out. when everyone clapped, so did i, and of course i let out a "woohoo!" i was so pleased! oh, i found out later that Brandon's question had something to do with what state Reno is in...at least that's what B remembers. i don't know recall how many kids they had to work through at that point--4 or 5?--but it took a while since they were all getting the answers wrong, so they were all staying 'tied'. finally, 3rd place was filled. then began the round for 1st place. Brandon was up against a 5th grader boy. (it was the best out of 3.) the first question was tough; with an obscure description, they had to tell what province of Canada some national park(?) was located in. both of them were incorrect. the next question had to do with 'oil rigs off the western coast of what continent?' i thought either Europe or Africa; turns out, it was Africa. the 5th grader got it right, Brandon did not. the next question basically asked "which empire near(?) Mexico City was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century?" i thought either Aztec or Mayan, probably Aztec. that was the correct answer, but both of the boys got it wrong. so with only 1 correct question out of 3, the 5th grader was deemed geography bee school champion. ...Brandon came in SECOND PLACE! i was very impressed! and to think he only started as a part of the huge preliminary group!! what a neat way to spend an hour of an otherwise mundane afternoon...!
oh, one more thing. i have to vent about the mispronunciation of Kissimmee. can't tell you how many times i've encountered it in my life so far. the principal pronounced it KISS-eh-me. grates on my ears. it's Ki-SSIMM-ee, people! :) i'm sure i'm not alone; i bet there are a plethora of others who get irked when something mostly 'local' is mispronounced by outsiders...you're welcome to share your "irk" when you leave a comment... :)