History Fair

I am a student at Lakeridge Junior High. I am in the Gifted and Talented English and History class taught by Sara Hacken. For part of that class, we are required to participate in the our region of the National History Fair competition. (Horrible punishment!) It is not easy. First, we have to research. Then we have to figure out if we are going to present as a documentary, paper, exhibit, website, or performance. Next, you have to put the project together. And finally, you have to present it in front of judges (Worst part for me).

This year the topic was An Individual in History. It is way easier then most topics. Last years was Conflict and Compromise and the year before was Triumph and Tradegy. This year I chose to do a group documentary with my friend on J.R.R. Tolkien, writer of The Lord of the Rings. It was actually rather fun putting it together because we got to work with computers. But it was a lot of hard and tedious work. I hate writing bibliographies. I hate having to redo everything several times. But what I hate more then anything is the fact that I had to show the documentary to judges! Argh!

On Monday, March 16, my class and I went to the History Fair compition for our region (which, BTW, is one of the most competitive regions to compete). I was nervous the whole time. When it was our turn to be judged, I thought we were doomed, but at least it would be over soon. I relaxed a little when it appeared that the judge liked it. He smiled through the whole thing, but every time he made a mark on his clipboard, my heart skipped a beat. When our documentary was done, we relaxed. Hurray! History Fair was over!

WRONG!

We feaking won first place! Terrific, right? Wrong again. That means we have to go on. By that, I mean we have to go on to compete in state and see more judges! ARGH! I was so not happy. Neither was my partner. We had been planning to celebrate the end of History Fair. Well, that rained on our parade.

So now I have to go back to my documentary, redo some more things, add more to my bibliography, go through another day of torture and nerves, and cross my fingers that we won't win and go to Nationals.