Winter 2021· Torch: U.S. · WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY CERTAMEN
“Cut the neck? You’re crazy! The patient will bleed to death!”
This is what my ICU colleague said when my patient in the ER developed an allergic reaction to the “clot-busting blood thinner” we had given him for his stroke. His throat was closing, and he needed a surgical airway.
“If I don’t cut into his neck and perform a cricothyroidotomy (I love this Greek derivative), he will die anyway,” I replied. “Plus, I am trained to do this.”
I completed the procedure without complications and the patient made a full recovery. As I reflect upon the stress of that situation, my mind returns to the first time I started to learn how to handle stress - playing Certamen. Of course, Certamen is “fun stress”, and the results don’t really matter. Although I started playing Certamen more than 30 years ago, I remember the butterflies, the sweaty palms, and the hives I would get on my neck like it was yesterday. Even when you know the answer, there’s that hollow feeling that settles in your stomach when your buzzer number is called.
As a high school student, playing Certamen felt like a “life or death” matter. Obviously, it wasn’t, but you could not have convinced me of that at the time.
Nevertheless, I have no doubt that the mental preparation and experience I gained in Certamen helped me learn to calmly navigate through even the most stressful situations now. In fact, there is an abundance of science supporting the idea that stress inoculation, such as one might experience by playing Certamen, prepares people for subsequent stressful encounters. By subjecting yourself to the stresses of a fun game that has no real consequences, you learn how your mind and body react amidst a rush of adrenaline and nerves. Sometimes, you succeed, and sometimes you don’t, but you always learn something about yourself. Slowly, you handle stress better in school, life events, and even in life-threatening emergencies.
The next reason you should play is the amazing world of classics. When you first start Certamen, you might only be interested in facts that can help you buzzfaster. Studying quizlet flashcards and memorizing timelines are much more efficient than reading books or translating primary sources. In time, however, most students discover that interesting stories “glue” the facts together.
Context starts to become important. Eventually, one sees that you can’t study Roman History without knowing the history and culture of other Mediterranean civilizations. And you
The magic of certamen
by Dr. Ron Roessler
FJCL Certamen Player, 1989-1992
WJCL Certamen Coach, 2015-present
magic
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