Tuesday March 14, 2006

We started off the day with a Congressional Reception, which marked the first use of our mini-posters. Not many people came to this congressional reception, but some students got to meet their senators or senators' staffers. We were all extremely excited when Senator Obama showed up, though! This far, far outranked getting to meet Bush.

Cindy excitedly explains her project to Senator Obama. (Photo by Feature Photo Service)

For lunch we were seated with distinguished guests for a ``Prime Time Luncheon.'' Our Distinguished Guest described his duties as an executive at Intel, but when making conversation got awkward we turned to picking up our spoons without supporting them underneath. It's hard to describe, but suffice it to say that Distinguished does not have to mean Stuffy.

After lunch we had a few hours to chill out and get ready for the awards banquet. A few of us took a walk around the area, laughing at the ridiculous density of embassies. Once we got back, we all got fancied up as if we were going to prom and loaded onto the bus.

Once we got to the Ronald Reagan Building, where the banquet would be held, we took far too many pictures. I swear we were going for the power set of Intel finalists. We met first with Craig Barrett, the Chairman of Intel, who was quite friendly and gave a speech I remember exactly none of due to excitement. Then we watched a movie of our time together, which brought several of us to tears--it was a harsh reminder that this wonderful night meant we'd be leaving soon. But it wasn't time to say goodbye yet! We headed out to the poster reception. Our parents, Intel executives, and even people like Mrs. D. (who runs RSI) and Matt McGann (of MIT admissions) were there! The word that kept coming back to me as I savored the feeling of excitement and pride and friendship was "glowing"--I felt like I was glowing, like it was quite literally our time to shine.

Soon we were herded into the tremendous hall to eat dinner--one finalist per table! It was exciting to sit with such important guests and be treated as the "guest of honor." I actually got into a debate with the Intel executive sitting next to me about intelligent design; I ended up with a modicum of respect for the idea--out of the hands of the Religious Right, of course.

A bird's-eye view of the banquet. (Photo by Feature Photo Service)

After Secretary of Education Spellings' remarks, we went behind a curtain and lined up alphabetically, waiting to be called up on stage. Once the forty of us were up there, with six-inch risers as necessary, Carmi summed up what all of us were thinking with his Seaborg speech. He'd prepared astoundingly eloquent remarks in the two or three busy days since we'd selected a speaker, and we were all proud of him and the voice he gave our class.

Now to the nervewracking part--the announcement of the top ten. We all knew that we'd be delighted for any one of us to do well--that's the beauty of knowing and loving all of the other finalists! But it's still a tense moment, simply because of the level of curiosity involved.

I hope I'll remember what it felt like to hear my name called forever. More than that, I hope I'll remember forever what it felt like to hear each of the other names called; I'm honestly not sure whether I was more excited for myself or for each of my friends.

Irina and I hugged when my name was called for tenth place. I love this picture! (Photo by Feature Photo Service)

The rest of the awards banquet was an absolute blur of hugs, and I remember being picked up (literally) quite a few times. Back at the hotel, we had a party just for the finalists, with no obligation to look fancy or talk science. We fed each other strawberries, picked one other up, and danced. Eventually we settled down to yearbook-signing and, at Eric's proposal, sat in a circle and passed a microphone around to say, in short, thanks and goodbye and we will keep in touch.