The Certificate to Success
Four seats to my left. Five seats to my right. Three of them are empty. Those they’re are right beside me. The three people who sat in those seats were recently terminated. The stunning silence tortures me taking every ounce of breath out of my lungs. The lady behind the podium announces in that false cheeriness that every teacher has in tense situation that my word is “integer”. A sea of faces stares at me awaiting my answer. I hesitate a few seconds before I answer. “I-N-T-I-J-E-R” “I’m sorry that’s incorrect” I had been eliminated. The bitter taste of defeat was strong.
I enter the gymnasium, and a grim-faced little old lady, who honestly looked like a kid in a wig, tells me to go sit down at one of the hundreds of seats in the room. All of the seats are uncomfortable, blue plastic chairs at long white tables. There are two seats to a table, with paper and pencil at every seat. I decide to sit at one of the empty seats at an empty table in the middle of all of them, and soon after, a nervous, young boy comes and joins me at the table.
I was really nervous I didn’t think I had what it would take to get through written rounds. They had to keep going until all of the competitors were knocked out, down to ten. All of these words were EASY!! The only thing I was worried about now was if the judges could read my handwriting. You see, I have notoriously horrible handwriting.
I made it through the written round and was one of the ten finalists. I was excited, but also very nervous because I knew I had tough competition in this deadly fight. They had put out ten chairs in a line, right in the front of the gym. I sat dead center. The awkward, deceitfully, joyful lady announced every word from a podium, and the contender would answer from a microphone that was passed down from contestant to contestant. Before someone answered a question there would be a deadly silence and a million faces staring at the participant. I watched as three people near me were quickly annihilated and worried that I would be next.
I was next… I didn’t know the word integer and was soon excluded from the competition. The bitter taste of defeat made me want to be sick. Then I saw all of the other competitors cease to remain in the competition. All of them except for one. After this happened, they called all of the finalists to meet for pictures and to receive our prizes. I didn’t know I was getting a prize!!! I received a sharp edged, thin, blue-tinted, certificate. I now had the sweet taste of victory washing over me. I had been a finalist, and received a certificate. I still have that amazing prize hanging on my wall. The place I keep it most now is in my mind reminding myself that even in a loss; there’s a victory.
