From Montana to Moscow, Brisbane to Banff and everywhere in between, one New Brunswick student knows every inch of the globe and this weekend he'll be tested on it.
Nicholas Hume, a Grade 8 student from Fredericton, will be competing against 19 other Canadian students in the Canadian Geographic Challenge in Ottawa from May 26-28.
The competition pits young geographers against each other in a three-day event to take home the national championship and a $5,000 grand prize.
Growing up, Hume said he always had little "obsessions" with dinosaurs and outer space, but nothing ever grabbed his attention like an atlas.
"I've never held on to something for this long," he told CBC's Shift N.B. "This could be something I could use."
And so he did, particularly after having a chat with his social studies teacher at the beginning of this school year.
"I had never had a social studies class before and I thought it was very important that she knew I liked geography," he said. "And she saw promise."
'Nervous' but ready to compete
Hume wrote the school-level test, then after passing that he had to complete the provincial challenge before being selected as one of the 20 national finalists.
He said he'll be one of the youngest students at the competition.
I'm nervous, so I'm studying a lot.— Nicholas Hume
"Most of the people are [from] high schools and private schools in Ontario," he said. "I'm nervous, so I'm studying a lot and mostly what I struggle with is physical geography."
The national championship ends Monday.
Though the first two rounds of the competition are private, the third round, which has more of a game show-like format according to the challenge website, will be live streamed online.