On Wednesday, the next meeting of the AAA takes place in Patricia's home given the size of the chapter. Before the meeting starts, Stephanie wishes to talk to Patricia regarding the ChGK state championship.

"Hi Patricia. It appears that Sergei told me about how addicted to achievement you were" Stephanie then tells her.

"I might have slipped some mention of addiction in front of him, yes..." a Patricia on the defensive tells her.

"It would do you no good for you to continue organizing the ChGK state championship. From now on, I will organize the tournament myself" Stephanie then tells the AAA volunteer.

Stephanie didn't seem to be that great as a team player. To the uninitiated, Stephanie might seem like a good fit. After all, she has brains, erudition, both of which are unquestionably assets in ChGK. If we needed a substitute player, however, Catria proved she was more of a team player, but has about as much erudition and brains as Vira, maybe a bit more, just not on Stephanie's level, Patricia ruminates while she realizes that she no longer has anything to do with the organization of the ChGK state championship.

So she can keep trucking with her service to the AAA, where Patricia is still stuck at step 1 while the other addicts start doing steps 4-5, making a fearless inventory and admitting to the rest of the group the exact nature of their wrongs. Which, she admits, was part of the purpose of asking these 8 questions.

"It's ironic that, in an attempt to execute the plan leading Kansas to the ChGK Worlds and run a fundraising ChGK tournament for the Partnership to End Addiction, I relapsed. So I'll finally start answering the questions you finished answering in previous weeks: first, I'd say that the metrics I used to gauge success were entirely of my own doing. However, how I am spending my time preparing first for the ChGK State Championship, and, if we don't win ChGK-State, I would then feel forced to cut back on my involvement in ChGK. That said, if I had every guarantee I would meet my goals, well, there are two aspects, and it depends on the timeframe I expect these to be reached by. I'll start with my ChGK goals, and this would mean winning the ChGK Worlds" Patricia harangues the addicts, wracked with doubt over even the national championship.

But more realistically there is no guarantee I can even compete at ChGK Worlds. While I am confident we can win ChGK-State, the real bottleneck is the national championship, held in mid-March in New York City. As for my career, it takes years for results of one's tenure as an assistant director to bear fruit in a way that can be leveraged for career moves, so it's a WIP for the long run. Maybe I picked healthcare administration because it wasn't "up-or-out" the way finance or professional services are. It might be stressful, but the healthcare professionals are under even more stress than I, Patricia keeps ruminating, while Stephanie prepares to tell the other addicts about whom she considers her "higher power", as well as what she considers her wrongs.

"I'll probably need a psychiatric evaluation to get my moral inventory done. The other addicts told this to me for weeks, and they are probably right: I may be powerless over something different, and psychiatric issues might be part of what I'm really powerless over" Stephanie tells the addicts. "But you made me realize I'm powerless over something in my life. My psychiatrist is going to be my higher power, at least for now"

"ChGK, ChGK... other than being a team riddle contest, you talk about ChGK as being the main vehicle for symptoms of your powerlessness over achievement addiction! Just how good are you as a ChGK player anyway?" an addict turns to Patricia after Stephanie leaves the scene, her head down in shame over admitting the AAA weren't for her.

"Since I never specified how important I really am to my ChGK team, because I didn't believe it mattered to understand where my feelings of powerlessness come from, your question has some merit" Patricia then prefaces a possible answer, feeling her face turning red as she feels embarrassed.

I think she feels powerless because she is pulling her weight, but she feels her team is underperforming and therefore she feels she isn't doing enough, that addict struggles to think of why Patricia kept quiet about the full extent of her role on that ChGK team.

"The cat is out of the bag now. Please forgive me if you're not familiar with the national ChGK scene and where the United States fit on the international ChGK stage, but I am anointed the Savior of Kansas ChGK since last year's state championship. Which is open entry, and I am the star player on the state champion team. So I gave my teammates training materials under the form of past national championship ChGK sets of other countries, past ChGK Worlds sets, past high school and later, collegiate quiz bowl sets of increasing difficulty for weeks, and we will know by Mardi Gras how much of a difference it makes" Patricia explains to these other addicts when her embarrassment feelings subside.

"You talked about your past achievements, academic or quiz bowl, but never about how you performed in ChGK until now. Only about your ChGK goals. You make it sound like you're a star player while, previously, you achieved what passes for stardom in different areas. But what's happening to you on Mardi Gras?" another addict asks her.

"The ChGK state championship"

Patricia then starts crying while she realizes her role in running the state championship was taken away from her after the other organizers caught wind of her achievement addiction. Said organizers are now reduced to only the tournament director (Stephanie) as well as the appeals committee, whose members also keep scores (Lanisha), take care of the facility rental and food respectively. Clearly Stephanie got along with Sergei better than with Patricia...

"Why are you crying?" yet another achievement addict asks Patricia, realizing how powerless she feels in her cries.

"My addiction cost me my role in organizing the ChGK state championship. I know I could have done more for the tournament than just play. I really shouldn't have told my teammates about it..." Patricia then sobs. "What's next, the AAA chapter?"

"I think you did well to tell them the truth" the first addict points out to her. "You should, as I did, realize that sometimes you might have too much on your plate. It's obvious you care a lot about playing at the state championship, more than you cared about organizing it, so maybe it's for the best"

"I could have rented a room in one of the city's community centers and then buy pizzas for all teams and tournament officials to eat. That's all I really needed to do" Patricia explains to the addicts.

Why am I treating ChGK-State as I would have had the ChGK Worlds? Also, what would defeating the traditional powers of American ChGK, New York, Washington and California, bring me, or Kansas? And even if I did end up competing at ChGK Worlds, what benefits would it bring me? Kansas? The US? Patricia keeps questioning inside of herself. Questions pop in her mind faster than she can formulate answers for. In fact, as much as she wants to formulate answers to any of them, she is unable to.

But maybe... maybe the questions being asked by the other addicts would help me sort out what I really need out of a psychiatrist! Or a therapist even, Stephanie ruminates as she was ready to leave the premises, and then comes back to the meeting. Once Stephanie gets seated again:

"One more question: in what areas are you placing unrealistic expectations on yourself?" an addict asks the others.

"Not really as far as I'm concerned. I'm more the kind of person to worry about whether an expectation is realistic than placing unrealistic expectations on myself" Patricia answers the addict's question.

"That's more troubling than I would like, but since I know that the next step includes attending law school, I want to ensure it's going to be debt-free, but at the same time I know that the entry-level legal job market is very elitist. It doesn't make sense for me to go to law school if I can't attend a top-fourteen and ensure I can do so debt-free" Stephanie explains what makes these expectations unrealistic. "And ideally Harvard, Yale or Stanford, but I might be willing to accept attending NYU on an AnBryce, UChicago on a Rubinstein or Columbia on a Hamilton, i.e., full rides"

From what I read about law school, however, is that grades and LSAT or GRE are the strongest predictors of admission, and my GPA is the one anchor point I have, since I graduated from K-State with a 4.0. By and large law school admission is not holistic unless you're a marginal applicant, Stephanie muses, while making her inventory of where she stands for law school. Where she can apply, as well as what scholarships she can expect from what schools if she hits certain score targets.

"Stephanie, even if you were able to attend, say, Columbia on a Hamilton, graduate debt-free and then find a job in the area of practice you want, I think it's going to be a big mistake. The kinds of jobs you will most likely get out of a top-six law school would be, yes, well-paying, but I hope you're ready to work very long hours, with all the health implications this carry" the fourth addict warns Stephanie. "You see, when I was practicing law, what made the expectations I placed on myself unrealistic back then was that I was made to feel like I needed to be fully devoted to my clients, deliver the perfect legal service, where one small mistake could cost me a client or a case. And it was a rat race for billable hours"

"Honestly, I think it may be a better idea for me to pursue something other than law school, while remaining mindful of the move being debt-free. That being said, I still think a psychological evaluation is in order before I can commit to that sort of pursuit" Stephanie continues with a question for that achievement addict. "What do you think are the wrongs you committed in the pursuit of the billable hour targets?"

"I neglected my relationship, and I paid alimony for years because I divorced due to making partner in the KC office, albeit an income partner. My alimony payments made it impossible for me to become an equity partner without taking out more debt than I would have liked" the ex-lawyer addict tells Stephanie. "Then I gave up on practicing law when I had nervous breakdowns on the regular"

-----------------------------

Come Mardi Gras, more than a month later, the tournament is about to start and the scorekeeper, Lanisha, installs signage in purple, green and yellow so that people outside the church in which the tournament is held knows it's happening. And, of course, social media coverage of this is somewhat limited, with only the TD (Stephanie) doing much of anything. And Patricia abstaining to do anything on social media until the end of the tournament.

"Before we begin, I really hope that Stephanie knew what she was doing by stripping me of the venue and food part of the tournament hosting. And, of course, I hope that you saved up for Nats in New York City in three weeks. If applicable, if we win, we book our plane tickets for New York as soon as the results are confirmed; I go book our hotel rooms and pay for these immediately and in full if we win" Patricia lays out the logistics plan for Nats.

"Why?" Yakiv asks her.

"From the hotel's standpoint, better have guaranteed cash on hand immediately than wait three weeks to rent it for a higher price that may not be booked, nor paid. Hence why we get better prices by renting rooms in advance. Same goes with plane tickets. I will book all six plane tickets on the same reservation so we can get a better price, but we will need all of you to reimburse me for your respective plane tickets as soon as the reservation comes through. We're going to take the same plane, and go to the same hotel, so it would be simpler for us" Patricia warns her teammates.

May as well book it as a package for additional savings, but my teammates bear the costs of their own plane tickets. Asking for Friday off at work is fairly straightforward, since I tended to keep my days off for stuff such as Nats. And an entire week for Worlds if we make it to Worlds, Patricia muses before they get seated in the church basement. And this year, a new team with 4 Kansas residents and 2 Missouri residents has entered the tournament that didn't last year.

An astounding victory for her and her team, who, as a result of winning a 9th state championship in a row, will go on and play for the national title in New York City three weeks from now. More specifically, at the Russian Mission School in Bronx, with the TD of ChGK Nats being the principal of the school, and the tournament staff being staff at the school.

"See? No big deal!" Vira points out to Patricia, gold medal in hand.

"Winning the state championship is one thing, but we must enter more tournaments from now to the ChGK Nationals. At least one per week and I will pay all the entry fees for each online tournament we're going to enter! We shall decide later what additional tournaments we will play once the Nationals are over. It goes without saying that we must play more online tournaments if we attend ChGK Worlds" Patricia warns her teammates. "With a preference for higher-level tournaments. And this is in addition to the training materials I sent you"

"Understood" Bohdan adds, nodding.

"How do you feel about Stephanie running the tournament when compared to my ex running the show?" Vira asks the team.

"The main issue with your ex were questions. On that count, I might be asking why your ex got Stephanie as the head of the appeals committee last year..." the sixth player asks Vira.

"Stephanie and the other two people on the appeals committee all judged brain ring tournaments at Bishop Miège in past years, either in a game room or on the appeals committee" Vira explains how Stephanie could even have gotten to be on a ChGK appeals committee.

"During all these years, you kept confusing scholars bowl with brain ring!" Sergei shouts in his mother's direction.

The worst in all that was that, unlike quiz bowl, KSHSAA scholars bowl tournaments actually had appeals committees, 5 members (1 per subject area: language arts, math, science, social studies and physical education/health). Ideally a game room would have a judge, a scorekeeper and a moderator.

When Patricia returns home, she wastes no time in booking 2 hotel rooms for 2 nights, since she preferred Sunday night flights to return to Kansas City, one for Yakiv, Vira and Sergei, the other for Bohdan, the sixth player and herself. She even distributes directions from LaGuardia Airport alongside the plane tickets, to the hotel, located elsewhere in Bronx, as well as from the hotel to the Russian Mission School. And in reverse for Sunday afternoon. And the prices they are each expected to reimburse her by the end of Nats.