User:Lizardbreath

[ Lizzy/Liz ]

- She/her

- Penguins <3

- Hydrology and chemistry !!! :O

- Scioly is my life lol and for what /hj

- GMS '23

- Psychoanalyzing myself to victimize myself

- L for lackluster, laborious, lament

- All my friends are so incredibly slay omg

one of those chaotic basic asians but a proud glasgow kid B)

oh yeh my discord is lizardbreath at the moment. come find me on there! <3

too lazy to format but:

nats '21 - covid year, understudy

nats '22 - 6th in Electric Wright Stuff (did Dynamic Planet, Meteorology, Road Scholar, Electric Wright Stuff)

nats '23 - 7th in Dynamic Planet, 11th in Flight, 18th in Meteorology (did Dynamic Planet, Meteorology, Storm the Castle, Flight)

thoughts on events:

Dynamic Planet

Possibly my favorite event? When I just started out in 6th grade, I found it hard to believe I would like an event about hydrology (literally just water in disguise /j) and sediment (literally just dirt in disguise /j). Sticking with the event throughout the years really allowed me to grow and see the beauty of it! Despite all the annoying math questions and abundant questions on bogs/marshes/swamps that nobody asked for, it managed to pull out as this eloquently complex system depicting the resource that all living things need to survive! And I think that's where Dynamic Planet really pulled me in. This resource, this basic molecule, so valuable and yet everywhere, could somehow be the catalyst for a million different cool features, cycles, systems, and more! Earth's Fresh Water quickly grew to be my favorite Dynamic Planet topic (granted I've only done two, but I would pick fresh water over something like glaciers any day). Oceanography was also incredibly cool though, and I was sad to leave it behind in 6th grade. Dynamic Planet is an incredibly broad event, which can be frustrating at times, but in the end I think it's worth putting effort into (as is any Science Olympiad event). Of course, I'm forever grateful for my amazing dad and the incomparable treesdea for helping me through my DP journey. While it is bittersweet to be leaving Glasgow, I'll never forget the incredible times I had with this event. <3

Meteorology

If one was to go off on a limb and say that Dynamic Planet was my favorite event, Meteorology would easily be my second (with Flight at a close third). It's probably no surprise that my second favorite event also has a heavy focus on water (after my whole tangent on the beauty of water above). Meteorology is actually so incredibly cool! I had a hard time falling in love with it during my 2021-2022 season (possibly because I didn't have a teacher and the topic was Weather and Climate), but when the 2022-2023 season rolled around, I loved it! Everyday Weather can be a very broad topic, but weather in general is such a big part of our lives, so it was easy to see the value in it and come to love it. I particularly liked how so many various phenomena and events can stem off of a few basic principles. Once you had those principles down, Meteorology became more intuitive and I just ended up loving it more. Once again, I would like to thank my most incredible partner, brii, and my phenomenal teachers, Marcus and Phillip. I could not have gotten anywhere close to where I am now without them. They are some of the most dedicated people I've ever seen in Meteorology. Marcus and Phillip's extensive knowledge shines every time we meet, and it's evident that they are super crazy good at Meteorology, and they're amazing teachers to boot!

Flight/Electric Wright Stuff

We're going in order of liking here xD. I put these two events together because my opinions of them are practically the same. I would not like Flight/Electric Wright Stuff at all if not for my amazing, phenomenal, show-stopping teacher, Mr. Janke. It's so clear how much he knows about flying planes, it's crazy. Every day I'm constantly amazed at this man's extensive knowledge, and how good of a teacher he is. He's patient even if things don't go well, and takes every mistake as a way to go forward and improve. I hope to have a mindset like his as I grow older. Not only is his knowledge extensive and teaching ability superb, but his dedication is evident. He goes with us to competitions and cheers us on (of course outside the area). Just when I begin to think there's nothing more he could wow me with, he proves me wrong. Anyway, on to the actual event. I'm going to be honest, I don't particularly like building events just because there are so many factors in which things could go wrong. Still, out of all the building events, Flight/Electric Wright Stuff are easily the best. As much as it is frustrating (in my opinion it is the hardest building event), there's a certain charm to building the planes, flying them, watching them break, fixing them, tweaking them, etc. You work on these planes so much and grow attatched to them, you can't help but find the event endearing after a while. There's also just so many factors that go into doing well in these events that give it its weird charm. Again, I want to thank my partner for always being there for me and sticking with me throughout the event. <3

Storm the Castle

I was put into this event with only a few weeks before nationals, and yet it still managed to rank higher than an event I did for a solid half a year. Like I said earlier, I'm not really a fan of build events, so I never expected to do particularly well, especially with having such a little time frame. When researching this event, I genuinely found it to be fascinating, but I think without proper instruction, access to materials, trouble with weights, etc. I just couldn't bring myself to like the event that much. An enormous factor in my nonchalance with this event is also the short time frame I had to work with. I think if I was given more time I would like this event a lot more. I again want to give my greatest gratitude to my partner for basically carrying in Storm the Castle and bringing me a few laughs along the way. Thanks to you and this event, I got to add getting yelled at by a librarian to my list of significant life events (though I'm not sure if I should be thanking you because I was very much embarrassed). Still, I had a good time working with my partner, and I think he's genuinely an extremely hard working person who deserves loads of praise. Overall, Storm the Castle is okay. I wouldn't do it again but I don't hate it.

Road Scholar

Okay, now it's an event I actually dislike. I think a large reason why I don't like Road Scholar is that I just don't see any value in it. With modern technology, knowing map skills isn't particularly interesting. Especially since the online resources I used to study were more limited. In general I just couldn't see how somebody would find map skills fascinating, as opposed to Dynamic Planet and Meteorology. To me, Road Scholar is like a double-edged sword. In invitationals it's pretty easy, but at nationals the test is really hard. And I think that was a big turn off for me. I wanted a consistent event, because I didn't want to feel like I was being led into a false sense of security. I also just didn't really like studying for this event because I found it boring (this is just a fancy way of saying I didn't see the value in Road Scholar as I stated earlier). As I end this, I want to again thank my incredible partner for helping me get through Road Scholar and joking with me along the way. She definitely made Road Scholar more enjoyable!

thoughts on seasons:

2020-2021 Season

I was in 6th grade and doing virtual schooling. Immediately I knew I wanted to do Science Olympiad from my brother. I wasn't very invovled in Science Olympaid, and was an understudy. I don't remember much from this time, but I did Dynamic Planet and Reach for the Stars. I didn't do particularly well in those events though because I couldn't find motivation. I think that was a large part due to the fact that I was virtual. It was still fun seeing Glasgow win states though!

2021-2022 Season

This is where I really fell in love with Science Olympiad. This year, I was in-person and determined to prove my worth on Glasgow's Science Olympiad team. Still, I didn't put in as much effort as I wish I had. I participated in Dynamic Planet, Meteorology, Road Scholar, Electric Wright Stuff, Ornithology, and Green Generation (though I didn't get to take an tests with Green Gen). The second semester was where I really started to put in more effort. I added new events to my roster and tried to study as much as I could, though admittedly I got side tracked a lot. When nationals came around, I was satisfied with my placings (though now I am a little disappointed in them) and I overall really enjoyed participating! It was here where I really saw why people put in so much time and effort into Science Olympaid. It had this unspeakable charm and allure. Seeing the California teams dominate just made me more motivated to study and push the limits of how good I could do. Being able to compete with my amazing team was so incredibly rewarding, and I wanted to experience that as much as possible. I wanted to give my team something to celebrate, and be able to meet so many incredible people who were interested in science just like me. Being surrounded by such amazing people was a big factor in me loving scioly. It gave me something to fight for on top of just studying science. I was able to deepen my friendships and forge new ones. With this newfound realization, I stepped into the 2022-2023 season with newfound hope. I wanted to do as much for Science Olympiad as possible, so that I could see our team thrive and be there when it did.

2022-2023 Season

This was easily my favorite season in Science Olympiad. I participated in Dynamic Planet, Meteorology, Flight, Storm the Castle, and Forestry. Not only did I get to go to competitions in person, but I also truly, and I mean truly, fell in love with all (or at least most) of my events. It was here that I started living and breathing scioly, and I found it so rewarding. In this season, I was determined to do better than I ever had before, and I'm actually pretty satisfied with how I performed at nationals! Overall, this season I was aiming to have fun, but also do well. And I think I balanced the two of those pretty well. Like I mentioned earlier, I met more incredible people and got to make even more friendships! There were definitely times where I was feeling unmotivated and dejected, but those were quickly outshined by all the fun moments I had with my team. This just gave me newfound strength to keep going, and it became this cycle. It's funny because during this time, when I think about scioly, I imagine it as this section in my brain. And scioly takes up a pretty big section. In the second semester and leading up to states/nationals, my thoughts somehow kept going back to scioly. I searched for resources and went to classes and interacted with people more than I ever had before. I think I really had a good and healthy relationship with scioly. I was in this state where I could have fun but also work. There were definitely negative moments though. But it's interesting now how I can't think of them as vividly anymore. This season was my last season at Glasgow, and it could not have been better. Science Olympiad literally gave me one of the best years of my life. I loved the events, the teachers, and the people in it more than anyone could ever know. Looking forward, it's hard to think about my life without Science Olympiad at Glasgow. And I don't think I'll ever truly let it go. I'll always be a fellow Glasgow-er and Loserianian at heart. I just want to give my sincerest thanks to everybody in Science Olympiad. To my coaches, the bus drivers, my teammates, the people in the discord server, all the online friends I made, the organizers. the parents. The list goes on and on. Sitting here on my bed, writing this, it's truly bittersweet how this incredibly journey of mine is coming to an end. Or will it? I still can't say. One thing I can say for sure: I had the best year I've had in a really long time, and I certainly didn't achieve that on my own. To anyone thinking about doing Science Olympiad, do it! You won't regret it. Stick with it, even when times are hard. (And do the earth science events because those are easily the best ;) <3)

When I see these things on another pages they're always written in third person. But I didn't feel like doing that because 1, I forgot, and 2, my words seemed more genuine this way and I felt my emotions came across better.

Anyway, lizardbreath is signing off! <3