No Shame

Yesterday afternoon was the final round of the National Geography Bee at Jake's school. One young man was a no-show, so there were 9 boys competing for who would represent their school at the State level. They first asked two rounds of verbally answered questions to each boy. Each had to get 2 answers wrong to be eliminated. Jake was eliminated in the first round when he answered both of his questions wrong. We are still so very proud of him for being the only 6th grader at his school to participate AND for going on to the second round. There is no shame in that. The competition eventually wound it's way down to three boys. One answered his question wrong and was awarded third place. Now the tension mounted! The final two boys each missed one question in the final round and now we went into sudden death. Questions would be asked of each boy and if one answered wrong and the other correctly, the one who answered correctly would be the winner. It took two more rounds before Emmanuel was declared the winner! Everyone cheered and I think he was probably more than a little embarrassed when his younger brother hugged him and his mom hugged AND kissed him. Right there in front of everyone! I think I even saw a tear in his proud mothers eye! Jake has two more years of Middle School to compete. He is a very bright young man and loves to read and learn, so we have every hope that he will be back in the next two years competing for the chance to represent his school. We are very proud of you Jake. You hold your head high!