This...is...Jeopardy!

Ever since I was very young, I've fantasized about going on Jeopardy!  I love trivia and have the ability to know things I shouldn't know!  (Maybe I'm just a good guesser!)  Last night, I took the Jeopardy online test for potential contestants.

The test definitely is not easy.  There are fifty questions.  For each question, you have fifteen seconds--yes, fifteen SECONDS--to type in the answer before the next question comes up.  The categories are similar to those on the show, including "Before and After" and "Rhyme Time".  I've taken the test in previous years and felt disappointed.  Last night, I felt victorious!

 Of the fifty questions, I probably knew the answers to forty.  Maybe thirty-eight.  I guessed at several, and I ran out of time for three.  Jeopardy doesn't let you know how you do on the test--I'm guessing that they take a certain percentage of the highest scoring in the country, but you never find out your score.  

Several years ago, I auditioned for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire when Meredith Viera was taking the show over from Regis Philbin.  The show's scouting crew came to the local mall, and I, along with about five hundred other people, took their screening test.  They put us in groups of 75, and I'm sure they took the top ten percent, because there were seven of us who "passed" the test.  It was brutal, but I passed!  Unlike the Jeopardy test, it was multiple choice, like the format of the game.  I was thrilled to pass--I knew a few people in my testing group and only one of them made the cut, but neither he nor I made it to the show.

I've always wondered if the reason I didn't make it to the show was because I was fat.  Let's face it, America is very discriminatory, and "fat discrimination" is one of the last legally permitted discriminations.  It'll be interesting to see how I did on the test, and if I did pass, if I'll make it to a live audition.  If I do, you'll be one of the first to know!

One thing this weight loss has afforded me is the belief that anything can happen.  I'm no longer afraid of my dreams, but pursuing them with vigor. Earlier this week, a friend from high school posted on my Facebook wall, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."  I think he's right!

Have a thankful, thoughtful Thursday!