The IBO 2012 was a magical experience. Despite the dizzying heat and the sleep depriving hours, the Biology Olympiad is an experience I’ll never forget. While everyone was there for a competition, there was great cooperation as we discussed biology and gave moral support to each other, across borders, across skin colours and across oceans. It was a gathering of people from all over the world, each with a passion for Biology yet it was a gathering of all sorts of different people with whom we mixed and mingled. The Biology Olympiad was more than just a competition, even though when it was time for the Practical and Theory examinations, everyone was focused and got down to the biology. The experience was very different to any school function or something of similar like, because we all had a common passion, and everyone was there for one reason and everyone brought to the table their own individual cultures and identities.
But any thanks to all the people that had organized the IBO, the guides, the officials, even all the participants must be accompanied by the thanks to our own jury members. They, going through goodness knows how many questions and getting possibly even less sleep than their partying, gossiping, socializing rugrats, had, as we discovered after the examinations, not only triple checked the exam papers so that we would have glitches, but also left a small but symbolic moral boost on every paper.
As for the journey until this point, the NZIBO was also a great opportunity to gather with similar people in NZ itself. It was like an IBO on a smaller, cozier scale. Even as a small group of 21 plus alumni and teachers, the atmosphere of biology was great as we each tried our hardest to study in the few days we had left before the examination, staying up at night in our rooms to study and converse about biology and any other subject we happened to come across. The smaller rooms of Auckland gave us privacy and focus, the bigger rooms of Hamilton gave us room to socialize and study together. I think this was the best balance between both the camp and IBO, the balance between work and play. The fun we had and the good times we had together; as a group, as a cohort, as friends.