Biography - Chrissy
Name: Christine
Nationality: American
Age: 17
Role: Research / Writer
Hello, my name is Christine (but feel free to call me Chrissy!) and I am currently a senior at Pinkerton Academy in the state of New Hampshire, USA. I was first introduced to ThinkQuest through the recommendation of another teacher at my high school. Since the moment when I first received an invitation to join the team, my experiences as a member have snowballed into a whirlwind of fun, learning, and work. My primary job has been to research our topic, time, and transfer all of my newfound knowledge into material that will allow countless others to gain the same insight that I have. All of our jobs are closely related – until an article is complete, it cannot be translated or uploaded onto the site, nor can appropriate graphics and all the extra fun stuff that we paid special attention to be added on. This tight bond between the jobs themselves helped to form just as close of a tie between the people working on them. The camaraderie built up between members in this way allowed for the team to quickly appreciate the importance of each, and it is at the point when each member comes to realize his own importance that he will work even harder to ensure perfection in everything he does. This, I believe, is the essence of teamwork, and also the core of our ThinkQuest experience.
It is amazing to note that as I learned about time itself and about all of the other people and cultures surrounding me on my team, I learned an equal amount about how time affects everyone on a regular basis. Our topic did not remain an abstract idea that we thought about only while brainstorming and writing – we have lived our topic from the moment of its inception. On a weekly basis, we had to keep up with deadlines and schedule meetings despite tricky time zones and daylight saving time (which didn’t always work out perfectly on the first try). Many times we joked about saying, “We’re out of time,” or “See you guys next time;” many similar phrases seem to be a common feature in languages worldwide. Although I had always considered time to be a fascinating topic, I don’t think I fully appreciated how many different aspects of life it impacts until I began trying to write all of them down at once. It was easy to take what we have done through Think Quest and apply it to everyone in multiple different ways, no matter where on the globe he lives, what language he speaks, or how advanced his culture is: no one can escape time. It is truly a force, a resource, a state of mind, and a unit of measurement that man has tried endlessly to fully understand. It’s the one thing that has an influence on business and commerce, science and math, technology and travel, religion and culture, the arts and literature, sports and health, psychology, and of course, history. By learning about time I have been able to learn a lot more about the world around me and increase my understanding of all the people who live in it.