SSEF 2007
On the 7th and 8th of March I ponned school for the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair and managed to get my ass (along with Wench’s and Pork’s) soundly whupped.
For a highly romanticized and somewhat detailed (though not entirely accurate) account of how things went at the fair for a ‘typical’ prize-winning group, check out Soo Teck’s blog.
In my group’s case we got only a merit and we were all understandably devastated, but I need to say something more important than my own worthless grievances: the fact is that lots of good projects didn’t get any awards. The truth of the matter is that if all the deserving projects got awards my group might not even end up with any!
Ultimately, SSEF isn’t really a fair competition in any sense of the word. It is but a hollow and symbolic celebration of precollege science research efforts and interests with a fairly random way of assigning prizes (though some deserving people did get what they deserved - Amelia Chang got two golds for RJC), so ultimately success or failure rests not with the awards, but rather, the appreciation and admiration of your peers (or lack thereof).
Hence concludes yet another chapter in my life, the success or failure of which is too early to tell. To paraphrase what someone told me not so long ago,
“You never really know if ‘failing’ at something is truly a failure, for other opportunities may come your way in time.”
I’d like to believe in what she said. But I guess only time will tell.