SPORTS/ACTIVITIES

Participation in MIST – A memorable experience!

By – Rida Hashmi (PHS)

While MIST essentially stands for Muslim Interscholastic Tournament, it is a tournament open to all high schoolers. Mist offers high schoolers a fun yet educational experience in which through competitions and workshops, Muslims and non-Muslims alike are given a place to express themselves and foster an understanding of Islam and Muslims. Students from high schools all across NJ competed in a variety of categories at Rutgers University including arts, sports, writing, quiz bowls, and more at MIST NJ this year.

As for me, I competed in Quran Memorization Level 3 as well as the Quiz Bowl. In Quran Memorization, they asked 3 questions and a few tajweed questions and based our places according to that. However, my favorite part was participating in the Quiz Bowl with 4 of my teammates.

Each of us had one topic and were responsible for the information it held. Questions were to be answered by pressing the buzzer and answering within 10 seconds to be counted for credit. While the prep work was difficult, with us often ending up in arguments, it all paid off when we won 1st place.

This is not to say we didn’t have mistakes during the competition itself as well. There were many times when we were unable to answer the question and many times, we pressed the buzzer accidentally. However, regardless of how many fights we had before, we all bonded due to the tournament. We had mistakes during the tournament, but instead of yelling, we were all motivating each other. Mist taught me that anyone can work together if for a common goal.