It was the end of break and back to school. This year I got selected to participate in synopsys science fair. I was fortunate to get shortlisted to represent our school along with other participants for the synopsys fair. Synopsys is an yearly science fair where over 2,000 students participate to present new innovation.

My experiment was on Investigating the effect of go green cleaners versus store bought chemical cleaners on oxidised iron and oxidised copper. I had collected not just a large data set, but collected 100’s of data points. That was one of the things that made my project stand out and got me into the shortlist. We had a month to prepare which meant we could elaborate on our studies and research to find differentiating points. I took the shortcut and did little further research, but mainly formatted my stuff to meet the synopsys criteria.

It was synopsys day and it was time. It was an honor to be representing my school and standing with 100’s of students from all over the bay area for five hours. The results came a couple weeks ago and about ten students from our school won and I was happy for them, but somewhere I was disappointed with myself. Not for not winning, but for my lack of effort and taking the easy route. I was only wondering about the minimum and not focused on giving the maximum effort. It was clear for me that from now on I would have to stretch myself and take the extra step if I wanted to be beyond the ordinary. It is a constant struggle as I want to do what is needed, but from now on I am going to try to climb harder.