The weekend started with overwhelming amounts of joy. It was the first weekend of summer. More importantly, it was the weekend that our quiz bowl team flew out to show the country that we could answer questions faster than anyone else. As nerdy as it sounds, it’s actually a fiercely competitive activity. I felt the stress of schoolwork fall out of my head and be replaced by thoughts of a sunny, ideally framed summer with flowers and life everywhere I went. I listened to my teammates discussing particle physics on a musty train full of confused people who wondered what “Lorentz transformations” were and why there were a bunch of Asian kids on public transportation. I remember the rush of warm air over the wings of an airplane bringing us over the white, puffy clouds and to an unknown state. But most importantly, to this day, I still feel the rush of competition and the satisfaction of victory.

But there’s a confession I’d like to make. Before I got to truly know the people on my quiz bowl team, I thought they were either: (a) a nerd, or (b) not. It was a closed-minded, black and white thought that made it an interesting process to interact. I constantly had to change myself to adapt to what I thought other people would like. Like many teenagers, I was going through a phase where I was not myself and I was trying a little too hard to get praise from others.

So, let’s begin our little odyssey.

Every May, 300 teams send their best quiz bowl prospects to compete in the High School National Championship Tournament to compete for the coveted #1 National ranking. As one could guess, that means that for a weekend, a venue is filled with the nerdiest kids in the United States. My high school sent 3 teams to compete for national dominance, and that meant that I was in close quarters with the smartest students at our school. Whether I was in the huge ballrooms or a cramped hotel room, I was with my team. We ate together, talked to each other, and most importantly, we worked together.

The competition was situated in this huge Hilton convention center. As soon as you opened the doors to the hotel lobby, you were blasted with air-conditioned wind that provided refuge from the beating rays of the Dallas sun. Inside, a quaint garden exhibited a quiet stream and some lush vegetation that beckoned you to come sit in its wicker chairs. A huge moving sculpture filled the towering atrium of the building, showing a certain richness and refinery. The tile floors and wooden fixtures exhibited a sort of hospitality that brought us back to our own homes. Nonetheless, even with all the attempts to make the hotel seem familiar, the hotel was stuck between two interstate highways in the middle of some hot, flat state called Texas. Needless to say, it was unfamiliar. However, the people that came did bring some sense of home. There were the juniors, who all seemed stern and unwilling to enjoy themselves. I thought that their whole purpose in life was studying and getting good grades in school. They seemed actively ready to throw away any fun in their life and replace it with “success”. Then, there were the sophomores, who were the bad influences of the group. They were the ones that screamed out expletives at 2 A.M. in the morning and they were the ones that got multiple noise complaints from our hotel neighbors. Whether they were watching extremely offensive videos or sprinkling chips in the teammates’ beds, they were constantly making everyone laugh and feel extremely uncomfortable at the same time, a certain talent that one can only dream of having. And then there was my grade, the freshmen. The lowly, disgusting creatures that were still learning their place on the quiz bowl team. We had to work hard to prove ourselves to the upperclassmen, who we saw as the gold standard for quiz bowl talent.

The first day of the tournament beat us up badly. We were humbled by teams that were better than us and the answers that we needed seemed to run away from us throughout the entire day. However, as people do during summer break, we decided to drop our worries and return to our lair and play card games or whatever bored kids play in the middle of the night. Being the competitive, glory-seeking people that we were, we used everything in our power to win the game. Sure, maybe I was trying to compensate for the losses I took during the day, but the goal of winning never escaped me. Stern, concentrated faces were dispersed in between outbursts of laughter all originating from a simple card game. That night, a novel idea came to me that said that my teammates might not be so different after all. Even though they were all smart and competitive, they were having fun. The juniors no longer looked so unapproachable and unyielding. The sophomores seemed more serious and started dropping their facetious natures to succeed. Most importantly, the freshmen forged friendships within the group and started fitting in. As all teams do, we started bonding over competition.

The next day was the final day of the competition. We had watched our A-team place 8th in the nation, which wasn’t too bad, but I knew they were all hoping for a miracle to happen to put them in first place. I knew they were a bit disappointed, but I also knew that disappointment this year would lead to motivation throughout the next year. The day ended with us ordering delivery and eating greasy food in the hotel lobby. The dim lobby was lit by ambient lighting, glowing from the balconies and the garden. The floating sculpture lit up and emitted a glowing amber light that made the atmosphere peaceful and warm, perfect to end a weekend of success and hard work. We bonded over pizza and pad thai, analyzed other teams, and shared anecdotes of the trip. We later retired to our rooms and watched SpongeBob, laughing and savoring our time throughout. That night was our last in Texas, but we enjoyed it nonetheless and found ways to further connect with each other. By all definitions, the trip was a team-building experience.

Because of the lessons learned that weekend, it will be a memory that sticks to me forever. The benefits and experiences gained from teamwork will forever be a reminder to cooperate with people and work for a common goal. I learned that if I had passion for a subject, it could take me anywhere in life, even to a national level. The dedication and hard work that I put into quiz bowl taught me ways to study and gave me habits that were beneficial to all parts of my life. However, the most powerful lesson learned was about people. I learned that a person was more than just a nerd or a bad influence. I learned the importance of getting to know people before making any assumptions about them and to never take first impressions as fact. To this day, I try to embody both the sophomores and the juniors, so yes, I am a nerd, but there is so much more to me than just that.