Essay Writing Competition

Waaaaaaaay back in February, eight of us in class answered Ms Leong's call to take part in the Royal Commonwealth Essay Writing Competition. Three of us got through to send in our entries, me being one of them.

Sports not entirely being my forte, I was extremely elated when I got this chance to compete in a competition on writing skills. Commonwealth level somemore leh... imagine the ko-kurikulum marks... muahaha.

For the past month, I've been checking the website for the results, to no avail, despite them stating that the results will be posted in July. (Which I intepreted as '1st of July' not '31st'... wouldn't you?)

Since sending in the essay, half the time I was so sure that I could win something, and the other half I kept wondering how the heck did I manage to write such a rubbish essay. But no doubt, wouldn't it be so great if I could actually win something, for the first time in my life, on my work alone, and not a team effort? (Not to mention the prize money, which is in pounds... *ka-ching* and the glory... *rolls eyes*) I mean, didn't I spend an entire weekend working on the essay? Friday was gone planning the essay, Saturday was spent writing it (Never before have I spent so long in front of the computer screen), and Sunday rechecking it again and again.

Today, I checked the website again, more out of habit than anything else.

I swear I nearly went into cardiac arrest when I saw the title '2007 results'. Fingers shaking so badly and heart thumping with excitement, I checked the winners list.

Nothing...

Turned to the Runner-ups list. Nothing...

Opened the individual country lists. Nothing...

Soo Li Ying from Form Five got a 'Commended' though, Congrats. ;-D

But she was the only CGL there.

I immediately relayed the news to Jolene and Jonie, the other two who took part. As I was sms-ing, I could feel my excitement dying down, only to be replaced by a deep sense of sadness and disappointment.

Sure, I realise that this is an 'antarabangsa' thing, and I'll be competing against the very best. Writers that far out-... well... -writes me. But all the same, I can't help but feel this gut-wrenching disappointment inside.

But of course, wise words that I've heard from various sources through the years immediately fill my head.

Win some, lose some... somebody's got to be in 1st place, somebody's got to be in last... try, try again...

And Jonie's really cute metaphore message that she just sent to me:

'We are like a pinch of sand from a long stretch of the beach. Other pinches may be better than us. Maybe we are from Batu Ferringhi and others are from Port Dickson... can menapis petroleum whereas Batu Ferringhi is just for picnics.'

You know, I can totally see the logic in that... lol.

There's still next year, and the next. And many, many more competitions to come. So, Jo, and Jo... (Geez... I keep forgetting you two have the same first syllable...) and the other thousand over people out there who didn't make the cut... we did out best. Time to wave the white flag and retreat. Time to go home and reload our gun ammunation and sharpen our swords.

We'll be back. *ka-shink!* (Arnold Swarze-however-you-spell-it style)

Oh, and to the winners, congratulations.

Anyone wanna read my essay? :-)

'It's not if you win or lose... it's how you play the game'