Did I win?

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Near the end of my last year of elementary school in Juarez I participated in a competition called Olimpiada del Conocimiento Infantil (children’s knowledge Olympiad), which brought together the brightest young minds and made them compete. After discovering that I was selected in my school to participate in it, I became very excited and decided that I would do my absolute best in it. The competition was divided into several stages; zone, city, and state each harder than the one before. To prepare for the competition I would be put aside from the rest of the class and study on my own on very advanced topics with the help of my teacher. The test was hard. The massive test that ranged from reading comprehension to algebra and chemistry was one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my life.

When I did the first test, I was scared. Not the normal kind of fear like heights or monsters. Instead, it was more like an irrational fear that you really don’t understand, fear of failure. I didn’t feel prepared when I did that test, although I don’t think any amount of studying would’ve made me feel any better. To my surprise I won both the zone and city competitions. This was very surprising everyone because in the history of my small school no students had ever won this competition. All of my friends felt very enthusiastic because this meant that I would go to the state capital to compete once more. Before leaving home, my parents, sister and I, prayed together for a little while since this is something we would do for all of our special occasions; competitions, trips, and pretty much anything important. My family and I very religious and we like to include our religion to all important aspects of our life. For some reason, praying with my family has always brought me a sense of confidence, like being in the core of several protection layers which make you better. In the state capital the competition was a completely different thing. Only the best of the best were there, from Juarez only 15 students made it to this stage and the competition got ridiculously hard.   My dad and I went to the state competition where I did the longest and hardest test I had ever done in my life. Waiting for the results, I ended up biting my nails, which escalated to my whole hand. I got 4th place from all the students in the state of Chihuahua, something which I’m really proud of. This meant that I would get to go to Mexico City to meet the president of Mexico, something that only a few hundred students could do.  Scared that many thing could happen to me, my mom let me go in the trip after much dialog trying to convince her.

The trip was awesome in every possible way. I saw all the attractions Mexico City had to offer and I did it alone. My parents weren’t there anymore to hold me through life. The trip changed me by making me grow as an individual and helped me become more independent of everyone. I realized that only I control who I am and how successful I can be.