Gettin' My Geek On

Yesterday was the first day that my kids had Knowledge Bowl practice and I stopped in a little early for a little blast from the past. Now, I know that there are parents out there that want their kids to go into the sport that they were involved in when they were in school and then they go to every game and scream from the sidelines and give their kids a half hour lecture on the way home as to how they can improve their game. These parents have always made me nuts. In this neck of the woods, I have referred to many parents as “hockey Nazis” as I watch them turn their entire lives into the pursuit of their child’s hockey activities. When I observe these parents and families I have this Dr. Who Dalek voice going in the back of my head…”You cannot deviate…You cannot deviate…You must destroy…You must destroy…You must win…You must win…”

Well, in a moment of crystal clarity and painful recognition, I have discovered that I am a Knowledge Bowl Nazi.

Oh yeah baby, I got my geek on in high school. I was a Quiz Bowl queen… and not only in school and at competitions, our team would meet at my house for trivial pursuit games in the basement with pizza and pop. We were the very essence of rebellion. Some of my team members told me that their parents asked if we really were just playing trivial pursuit…perhaps instead of trivial pursuit we were, in fact, having drunken orgies or using our incredible combined knowledge to create crack cocaine and then of course, bring the downfall of the inner city black population… Sorry mom and dad, we really are just playing trivial pursuit…

So I found myself living and dying with the first practice session of my kid’s knowledge bowl team. I had picked out the top players, studied their technique, written off the style of the all boys team when they were to busy competing with each other than competing against the other teams…I was very close to kicking back with a score card, cold beer, and a cattle prod.

I’ll put some learnin’ into those kids…even if it hurts…