I was browsing through my contacts WhatsApp status, flipping from one person's post to another, and then I got to a post by my departmental PRO, which included a flyer with information about the faculty's interdepartmental debate, quiz, and spelling bee competition. I flipped through after I read everything on the post. Some days later, I began to see the ads about departmental representatives.
Normally, I'm the kind of student who rarely participates in extracurricular activities in school, and I have been told by friends why I need to join extracurricular activities. Most of my friends participate in sports, but I don't even come to the sporting arena to cheer them up. The more the announcement reverberated across the faculty community as broadcast messages flooded our digital spaces, the more my curiosity was piqued. I began inquiring about representing my department in a quiz competition.
Ever since I was a kid, I have been a whiz of general knowledge, facts, and history. I began preparing myself by refreshing what I knew about current affairs, both local and international, as well as geography. The journey commenced with a preliminary competition designed to select the contenders vying to represent their respective departments. With ease, I emerged as the first in the preliminary competition, and I got the opportunity to be my department's torchbearer. The person who came in second in the preliminary was assigned the opportunity to represent the department too.
Ever since I was chosen, I began to wonder whether I had what it took to represent the whole department. I began doubting my abilities in general knowledge, especially perhaps because it was my first time being a main participant in a faculty event. But while I was also worrying, I was also preparing to read up on every piece of information that I thought I could be asked about that I might remember or didn't know.
The quarterfinals took place in a small classroom in the absence of a crowd. Different questions were asked, spanning a wide range of subjects, from the human body to exploring the geography of countries and their capitals and currencies, etc. I easily got to the final round, and in fact, I was the first person to do so. Luckily for my department, the other representative also made it into the final round, and the other two guys representing two different departments also made it into the finals.
The final event took place on February 2nd, 2023 in one of the biggest halls in the faculty. More than 500 students were in seats for the event. The stage was adorned, the audience waited eagerly, and the air was thick with anticipation. The event started with the debate and then the spelling bee. However, it was the quiz competition that emerged as the focal point, capturing the collective attention of the audience with its intriguing and intense questions.
When it was time for the quiz competition, I was called up to the podium with other representatives. I was getting nervous. This would probably be the first time I would face that amount of crowd. I can recall vividly when I was given the microphone and asked a question. I raised my head to look at the audience, but I was shocked to see a lot of eyes and people fixated on me. That wasn't my first time on a podium, but perhaps the first time with this huge audience. Looking into the eyes of a lot of unfamiliar people can be frightening. I could see some of my coursemates cheering me on, but most times the eyes of the audience seemed like an arrow ready to shoot forth, making it harrowing.
Soon, I realize I don't need to look into their eyes; instead, I look above their heads and sometimes pretend they aren't there. This mini-stage fright didn't affect my performance so much. And to my surprise, I found myself at the centre of the quiz's spotlight, due to being presented with some of the most challenging questions of the entire competition that even the audience deemed impossible to answer. However, I defied expectations and astounded the crowd by easily answering the hard questions.
As the quiz progressed, I started getting used to facing the crowd and answering my questions. I almost won, but in the end, I came in second, and it was due to a misunderstood question that led me to give the wrong response. Despite the bittersweet taste of narrowly missing the top spot, I was celebrated for my outstanding performance, and I was given the silver medal, the very first that I won for the department.