Happy π Day!
March 14, 2024
At the time of writing this, if we combine the month, day, and hour, we get 3/14/15 → 3.1415 ≈ π. Unfortunately, we are merely in the year 2024 (we got 68 more years until ‘92!), and there are only 60, not 65, minutes in an hour, so we can’t go much further with this pi representation.
But we can go further with spirit! Specifically, I had the honor of leading Pi Day at my school, which was, of course, much more difficult than I predicted. To be fair, this was the first event I ever led at our school, and there were only four members in our committee for a school-wide event. For a comparison, committees are typically six to seven people.
A lot of the time, life felt like the bridge that was built under a poor approximation of pi (ok I could not actually find this story, so maybe it’s imaginary). Initially, I was pretty critical about how I ran the event and wasn’t happy with how it went, but a lot of people said it was good, which I was confused about. I can’t help but immediately think, “Oh, these people are just being polite. Of course they can’t say that it wasn't run well.” But it also feels wrong to reject the compliment right away. At least when I give a compliment, I’m not just trying to be polite, so why would I assume that about others?
Anyways, this post wasn’t supposed to get so philosophical so quickly. Our team brainstormed and ran a few new events, while also retaining some traditional Pi Day events. Knowing that there were previous events that this year's event could be compared to was nervewracking for me. At some point during my first class, I had a moment in which I could feel something sharp in my chest if I breathed too deeply. The cardiovascular system or whatever was triggering that… she was working a bit overtime! There were multiple past 12am-ers and many journal entries screaming “AAAAAAA,” but things worked out in the end. I could focus on the mistakes, but that would probably be boring to read and are nit-picky anyways. All the mistakes funnily worked out too, so… yay?
Another interesting point was that someone said that I sounded really confident when public speaking, which challenged my perception because that’s not a trait I associate myself with. I wouldn’t say that I’m confident (yet), but I would say that I’m good at forcing myself to do something when it has to be done. The confidence came out because I had no other option. It was like a survival response.
Ultimately, the biggest takeaway from this (and I realize this is probably super obvious, which I learned after running the event) is that being a leader isn’t only about how hardworking you are. It’s also about how well you communicate and coordinate with other people. There is no way to be in five different places at once. If there was, I absolutely would have done that, but unfortunately, I am not an exception to physics. The people I have to thank the most are the people who helped out with the event as they helped balance out my incompetence at times. All the people who did science demos, pie deliverers, pie distributors, the setup and cleanup crew, staff, the Pi Day committee, and of course, the student body for their unwavering patience.
I did not get to enjoy a piece of pie like in previous years, but I did get to experience a new slice of life!
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
That is all, consider subscribing or