Off to see the wizard x 3

For the third year in a row I am competing in the annual Society for Range Management's two undergraduate exams at their conference. One is the written exam based on anything and everything related to range theory, and the other is the plant identification exam, which pits the students against sometimes impossibly hard plant samples.

This year the conference is in Reno. We fly down on Sat afternoon, compete on Mon and Tues, attend the awards ceremony on Wed, and take one of the tours organized as part of the conference on Thurs. Then on Fri most of us fly to San Diego for several days of well earned "rest and relaxation." Sat (my birthday) will be spent in 6 Flags, and it is my mission to ride every roller coaster that they have in the park. I can hardly wait! I L-O-V-E roller coasters! I just laugh the whole time I'm on them! And they have a couple that go 80+ miles/hr!!!! We haven't decided yet what to do with the remaining 4 days, but will likely go to the wildlife park, the zoo, take a harbor tour, and might make a day trip down to Tijuana just for the crazy experience.

Since it's my third year competing I'm feeling the pressure to perform. I'm shooting for a spot in the top five in the plants exam and top ten in the written exam. There will be 180 students competing in the written exam this year, and maybe about 120 in the plant exam. It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm stoked to go, but stressed about taking an entire week off school to do it. I'll have a lot to catch up on when I come home!