Friday was crazeee. In the morning, Jack, Joe, Mom and I met Jack's fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Klar, down at the Sumner School which is across the street from National Geographic. Jack had won the right to represent Jewish Primary Day School in the Washington, DC semifinals of the National Geography Bee. He was competing against kids from schools all over the city, including all of the elite private schools, like Sidwell, St. Albans and Maret.
Joe was wearing his JPDS shirt to cheer on Jack. That was very sweet and cute.
Jack understandably had been really stressed out the past few weeks leading up to this, but he was pretty cool and calm the day of the competition. He got a good night's sleep, which is key.
When they called on him to answer his first question, my heart was pounding so hard in my chest. I told him afterwards that I really felt connected to him, and I was hoping that I was more nervous than he was. What I thought was cool was that after answering a few questions he got into a groove and I sensed that he started to "want it." He was confident. We had talked all week about how it was great to have just gotten to this point. I think that was forgotten once he got there. He wanted to win.
He made it out of the qualifying round and into the finals. He was the youngest kid there. He did well, but as you can see on the video he boots an easy question. I talked to him afterward and he just thought it couldn't be that easy. I can see the gears cranking in his head.
One other thing I saw was how mature he acted. When one of the competitors next to him missed a question he would give them words of reassurance. That blew me away, and made me more proud than anything. Prouder than the fact that he ended up getting 6th place overall.
In the end it was great for Jack to have just gotten to the semis. He represented himself and JPDS incredibly well.
After we went to The Palm to celebrate, all of us drove over to Washington Hospital Center to drop off Mom. Papa Sy had gone there that morning to have them look at his heart. As it turns out, one of his arteries was blocked so they put in a stent to let the blood flow. He came through all that like a champ. He is back out in St. Michaels now with Nana.
And the last thing on Friday was a dinner for Mom's birthday. We went out with Aunt Abby, Uncle Andy, Aunt Tracey and Uncle Andrew. We had a great time, but I was bushed. Even with a visit to the hospital I think Mom had a great birthday. The guys got her a pair of pink converse sneakers. Tomorrow I'll show you what I got her.
Love you.
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