I’ve never been the winning-type. People with fiercely competitive natures win awards for footraces, chess matches and science fair projects, because winners strive for perfection and can drum up the singular determination and laser-like focus it takes to succeed. Winners always expect to win.
That’s my problem. I never expect to win. I’m just not ferocious enough. It’s not that I want to lose, I’m just totally okay with being imperfect and not winning. Well, except when I was the runner up in the Rio Hondo Elementary School Sixth Grade Spelling Bee. It came down to me against Theresa Schneider, the undisputed class Super-Brain. It was my turn, and I lost on the word “strait,” which I spelled “straight,” because I didn’t pay close enough attention to the definition. Dang it, I KNEW how to spell “strait.”
Theresa won, and I have forever regretted my haste and moment of overconfidence. It sure would have been nice to be the Sixth Grade Spelling Bee winner, but I got over it quickly. I was actually happy for Theresa Schneider, because she was a really nice person and didn’t deserve it when kids resented her for always getting 100% on every test and blowing out the grading curve.
The point is, when I enter any kind of competition, I do it for the fun and experience of participating without any hope or expectation to win. The way I see it, even an Honorable Mention would boost my ego to the edge of unbridled, squealing hysteria.
That’s why I was almost beside myself with shock and delight when Pennwriters notified me I won the 1st Place Prize for Nonfiction in their 2015 Writing Contest. What stunned me the most is that my entry was a humorous essay about breastfeeding, which I thought would amuse any female, but had the potential to terrify male judges. This piece is so embarrassingly funny, I still have to gather the courage to let any family members read it, especially my two sons, who might prefer to cover their ears and say “LA LA LA LA.”
But I won. And I now have in my possession an official Certificate of Achievement as my reward, as well as a voucher for Free Conference Admission to one of the next two Annual Pennwriters Conferences, which is extremely exciting and valuable to me.
I just entered another writing competition this weekend, and while I certainly don’t expect to win, I can honestly say that winning sure beats being the runner up in the Rio Hondo Elementary School Sixth Grade Spelling Bee.