My name is Houtian Zhong, and I’m the head of Physics Club. In the past few weeks, a few of our members participated against other secondary school students in the Canadian Youth Physicists’ Tournament, also known as CaYPT. In this competition, team members work on a set of physics problems by researching the theory, coming up with experiments to answer a problem statement, and presenting and defending their problems at a virtual event.
For SMUS, CaYPT has always been an uphill battle. We don’t have as much experience as the other schools, and our access to experimental equipment is much more limited compared to schools like the University of Toronto Schools. As a result, we’ve been closer to last place every time we participated. For me personally, it just seems like the competition doesn’t really like me. Last year, I got an eye infection while doing CaYPT. This year, I thought that the gods would be nicer to me. They weren’t. I got sick again this year and even fainted the night before the second competition day.
But this year, we had a breakthrough. A historic breakthrough. My team, We=mc scared, placed 9th, and Manami’s team, Physics Jags, were placed 12th. This is our best ever result!
The judges were impressed and commended the team on their experimental ideas, theoretical knowledge, and communication skills. Furthermore, Manami received the Asadi Lari Leadership Award. For some context, she had to lead a team with only three people while competing with other, more prepared, teams with four to five people. Her team did incredibly well despite all the obstacles. Her team may be the smallest in numbers, but they’re also the mightiest in spirit.
We do this not because of glory, not because of fame. We do this because we want to. We do this because we can.
This year won’t be a year to be forgotten. It’s one we will remember as the year when we showed the world we can overcome our struggles and prevail with all odds stacked against us. This is Physics Club. This is us.
For some people, it might be normal to wake up at 6 am on a cold Saturday morning, but not for me and not for most of our team members. However, despite how hard it is to get out of bed to train for this event, the donuts Mr. Donatelli brought warmed those mornings. It is hard to embrace this unusual routine, but once I am with my team members, who also don't like getting up at 6 am, those mornings become fun-filled. We joke about not being able to get up, and we joke about the possibility of failure. But on the day of the Tournament, we all woke up, were present, and ready.
The feeling of panic and concern was on everyone's mind, but as teammates and friends, we always supported each other and went through everything together. We all experienced procrastination, and by having such a lesson, we all improved our time management skills. During the Tournament, we all count on each other, and the friendships we make are more meaningful than the score we get.
We cheered when one of us had an excellent presentation, and we struggled when we were being asked many challenging questions. It is hard to understand something we can’t be taught in class, and it is even harder to present our project to people we don't know. But when the time comes, nobody is by themselves. We are with each other, find solutions together, conduct experiments together, and win and lose together.
It is more than just physics that we learned, and it is more than just presentations that we made. Our team’s name is We=mc scared, but we were never scared of anything. Thank you to my team members and to SMUS for this opportunity.
Houtian Zhong
