What do you feel during contests? Have you ever been in one? What was the outcome of it?
Hey everyone! This is by far my 3rd blog this week. Please continue supporting my blogs and stay tuned for more content.
I've been constantly trying to blog through a hectic schedule without any interesting things going on in my life but I hope you still continue reading this as I unravel through my contest experiences this year and how it went. Let's get on with it!
🪼⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
DIVISION FESTIVAL OF TALENTS | ORATORICAL SPEAKING AND WRITING COMPETITION
These are one of my most favorite moments of all time. The contest was held in Argao and it was quite far from where we were so we had to travel for nearly 5 hours. It was pretty exhausting if I must admit. I also felt very overwhelmed and anxious for what was going to happen to me the whole time I was there. I had a little bit of time to take my mind off things. But the view and sceneries in Argao were definitely breathtaking. When the opening program came by, I was sitting silently around the corner and listening to the speaker when someone suddenly tapped on my shoulder. It was a boy around my age and he asked me about my religion because of the keychain I put on my bag. I was surprised to find out we were in the same religion so we got talking and instantly became friends.
My first impression of him was that he was very extroverted, loud, and friendly. The first time I saw him there, he had already interacted with a couple of contestants from other municipalities and I didn't actually expect him to come up to me. "At least I finally had a friend." I thought to myself. During the competition, I was sweating buckets and I became more anxious over the passing time. I had always been scared of public speaking but I still didn't have any idea why I won our school's selection contest. What made me all the more nervous was because the topic was about Christmas. It was something I could not relate to, especially since our religion prohibits the celebration of such occasions. However, I was really glad that I wasn't alone because he could also relate to me. Even though I felt like fainting and having a panic attack at that time, he tried his best to make me laugh and keep me distracted from all the worries ahead of me. Even though I had not won the contest due to the controversial topic that I had to deal with throughout the whole contest, I was very thankful that I met new friends along the way. I want to take this time to thank Gian, the guy who became my first friend there and the pathway for me to make new friends there. I am a very shy person and you can't expect me to go up to anyone easily. But because of him, I met my other sincere friends, Heaven and Mitch.
We eventually got into a friend group after the contest and up until now, I feel very thankful that I was destined to meet them. Although we are far apart and there is a small chance we might see each other again, we still try to keep in touch despite all of us being academic achievers and such. I want to thank them for all the good memories they've given me even in such a short span of time. We would be comfortable enough to rant our problems to each other and ask about our day while spilling tea since we're from different schools. I wish I could just see them again.
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DIVISION SCHOOL'S PRESS CONFERENCE
The contest took place in Liloan, Cebu and we had to stay in a school for 4 days and 3 nights. The first few days were pretty much uneventful since we weren't allowed to go outside and stuff. All we did was sleep, talk, use our phones, and mostly eat. The first night was a horrible experience. Basically, we were all assigned into different rooms and we had to stay inside a nursery-sized room.
The space was really small and we had a hard time there because water was scarce and the faucets weren't working. We always had to fill up buckets of water by going to the water pump behind the school, then back and forth. At midnight, I randomly woke up to check the time and it was 3:00 am. I was having a hard time sleeping because I wasn't really used to the place. I got up from my mattress just to realize that the floor was wet. I haven't thought about it much as a big deal because I thought my small water bottle had just leaked some water so I took a rug and started wiping the floor. However, I realized soon that no matter how much I kept wiping the surface, water would still come in through the tiles. That's when one of my schoolmates (who was facing the bathroom door as she slept), got up and made a sloppy sound as she walked across the room, indicating that she was wet. Eventually, the rest got up and turned on the lights. That's when we realized the room was flooding and the faucet inside the bathroom had been mysteriously turned on. From there, we evacuated and transferred into another room.
The day of the contest came along after an exhausting night. We had a little time to prepare and we were all worried because our coach was not there at that time since she had to take care of her baby. The contest started from there and we had a short discussion/preview of the things we were expected to do. Surprisingly, I didn't really become that intimidated and scared and went on by writing. I was honestly shocked when I saw our fact sheet. It was probably because it was about a murder case and conversation between the prosecutor and a suspect, which he haven't practiced writing on before. The challenging part was that we weren't allowed to use information from the background to use as our lead. It stated that we could only use information from the conversation. I was also kind of worried while writing because I knew that I had a really bad handwriting because my coach told me it was one of the most important things to work on because it would be the first thing the judges would notice. But I still went on anyway.
The awarding ceremony eventually came around the corner. it was held in SM Consolacion. There were so many people there, excluding the ones who were there to go shopping. Sadly, I didn't win anything but one of our contenders did. In fact, the Regional Schools Press Conference just ended today and she managed to bag the first place and she can compete for the nationals. I'm very proud of her for obtaining such a big achievement, even though it was her first time and she often doubted herself and her capabilities to write. I am very proud of you, Angela! Congratulations! Next year, I aspire to be just like her and eventually earn something for myself and make everyone proud.
That is all for my blog today! I hope you enjoyed today's reading! Stay tuned and be updated on my future blogs. Thank you so much!
With love,
𝓰𝓲𝓪 ⋆