“Do you want to do literature or history?” the captain of my seventh grade quiz bowl team asked me. I liked my history teacher more than my literature teacher, so I chose history, for that reason and that reason only. And the rest is history.

I remember one tournament in particular. It was in seventh grade, in the beginning of January or February. We had just finished a round, and were now anxiously waiting to see if we would go on to finals. Then, a devastating blow – we were told we hadn’t made it. But as despondency began to set in, more news came. There was a calculation error! We had made it to the finals! That last round was a blur. Finally, we got to the last clue – the one that would determine the winner. I realized I knew the answer. It was “The Epic of Mahabharata,” which I had read a shortened version of as a kid. I jammed the buzzer, and I just remember the feeling of ecstasy when the moderator said, “Your answer is correct.” The feeling of winning is something that cannot be beat.

Although it is my focus, I don’t solely study history for these quiz bowls. I’ve also dabbled in other topics such as geography, but they never had the factor of humanity about them. Sure, there are places, but there’s no personal, human aspect like there is in history. History feels more real. I know these things happened, so I can try to understand the motives behind these actions that actual people performed. I appreciate that in studying history, I gain the ability to see things from different points of view, because history is never one-sided. Being able to grasp both perspectives helps me not only in my studying for competitions, but in my everyday life as well. If people are arguing, being able to see both sides of the story keeps me grounded. It’s easy to think of the other person, whom you are arguing with, as living in a fantasy land, separate from yourself, but if you can recognize their viewpoint, then it becomes understandable, it makes sense, and that’s when you can move forward and actually solve the problem.

As much as I enjoy flowing through Wikipedia from one concept to the next on one stream of consciousness, competitions are the highlight of my history bowl experience, and my favorite part is the competitive aspect. I can have fun, but I’m also trying to expand my knowledge base, and ultimately my goal is to achieve a higher level of success. Competitions  gauge how much I actually know about the topic. They’re also places where I can be with people who have the same interests as me, aim to have a little fun, but also play to win. Every higher level I get to, the more of a competitive fire there is, because I won’t be back there for another year. That fire is always in me, it’s something I always have, and it makes me work that much harder so I can get to where I want to be.