EU Whiz: Just like a tattoo

I didn't know that Mindanao Daily Mirror had also covered the EU Whiz held last July; I thought it was only the Mindanao Times, until I stumbled an on-line version of the Mirror's account of the contest:

"UP Mindanao team won the grand championship in the recently concluded EU Whiz ’08 Mind Encounter Kaya Mo To! held at the event center of SM City Davao on July 10.

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"The third round was between Holy Cross of Davao (Jed Bete, Kharren Ray Pala, Arvin Antonio Ortiz, Rolando Pelayo, and coach Teresa Fabiana), UP Mindanao, and Jose Maria College (Gretchen Belleza, Rizz Monique Juan, Earl Evangelio, Annie Rose Labong, and coach Rachel Amad).

"In the end UP Mindanao won, followed by Brokenshire as first runner-up, and AdDU as second runner-up."

The EU Whiz is  one event that will always remind me of 2008. Just like a tattoo, I'll always have it.  (Yuk-wasn't that line from Jordin Sparks' "Tattoo" song?)

It's not that I am  still harboring  a sayang-naman-hindi-kami-nanalo-feeling that I keep remembering that unfateful event. EU Whiz is memorable to me for two reasons:

1. It is my first time to join a quiz bee outside the school.


2. At least I did one thing in 2008 that I can be proud of:  imperiling the UP Min's chance of winning.

We  are desperate to win the contest. We even studied several facts and figures culled from the most unreliable of sources, just to secure that we left no stones unturned. Happenstance decreed otherwise. We lost. But I can say that it was a heroic defeat---at least for me.

While the article detailed how UP Min. won the contest, it forgot to mention how we made the UP Min's road to victory an uphill climb. Yes, making the Iskolar ng Bayan 's lives miserable (only in quiz bee, of course) is something that one can be proud, considering that the people in the audience (from what I heard from my friends who were there) are all rooting for them.

They are deserving indeed. But so are we. Although we know the answers, the  judges know  the UP  studes better. Tsk...Tsk...Tsk...

The moral of the story: Press the buzzer harder. And make sure the light works. Otherwise, the rival team will be called.