"Why,why ME!" I screamed and started wailing. "What I do to her?"A water fall of tears gushed from my eyes ans trickled down my cheeks. Reading the sentence that stated my failure seemed like a big punishment. Yet, I still couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Why had I failed? What did I do wrong? Questions like this flooded my brain and I felt pain. Not physical pain, but a pain that makes you think as a total failure. That day, even my mom's soothing didn't calm me. I felt like I was useless. But wait, maybe I am going too fast. Let me tell you about my loss.
"Attention students. If you tried out for the Lone Star Challenge team, the names I call will tell who has made it to Lone Star. From fourth grade, Vaishnavi, Aditya,......And now for fifth grade,Pari, Olivia, Tanush, Ayush,Sanjana, Arkadeep, AND SHREYA!!!" The Lone Star coaches announced over the loud speaker.Hearing this, I screamed up and down with joy.😍My teacher congratulated me and so did my friends. I felt like I was really special. I felt like a bright star floating in the galaxy.But I had yet to know what I was going to face...
On the bus I usually sit in the back, but today, I sat in the front, so that I can reach home quicker. I was looking forward to reaching home and surprising my mom about the event.I knocked on the door and tried to control my happiness. But I couldn't. As soon as I stepped into my house, I yelled out the news. We both jumped up and down with joyousness. I immediately called my friend and told her about my achievement. Moments after I returned to the Earth from my planet, I remembered that only 9 out of the 11 people will get to actually participate in the final tournament. The 2 remaining people will be considered as alternates. Because of this, I started reading the 2 packets of information that was given to me.
The Lone Star practices were every Tuesday after school.We had a novel called Hook's Revenge. It is about how Jocelyn Hook, Captain Hook's daughter goes through many challenges/obstacles to avenge her father's death by killing never land's most feared crocodile, the Tic-Tock-Croc. We were given this book because part of the competition is to write an essay that is related to this book. That is why it is mandatory to know this book inside out.We had two packets. One was on Pirates and privateers and the other on was on explorers and expeditions.
These were not hard to do. We also had to make 78 index cards on scientific vocabulary words. Also, we had to fill out a huge graphic organizer on the personalities of each character in the novel. This wasn't too pressurizing, but the homework load started increasing so much. Instead of sharing our thoughts on the novel and doing a little game to help us remember facts, we started doing tests each practice. We had to ''memorize'' a certain number of pages each week to prepare for a quiz(more like tests) the next practice. Let me just interrupt our talk here about my loss and let me give a tribute to my mom. Every week she went through a lot of hard work and made online quizzes on each chapter.It is hard to get questions from each line and give it 4 options that are not obvious. I really appreciate how my mom did as much as she could for me to succeeded. Thank you mom. Now, getting back to our conversation, to Indians reading this, you might feel that memorizing might be a piece of cake, but, when it is a matter of participating in an important competition or not, it is more stressful. More stressful than when it is a matter of a good grade or bad grade.In my opinion,Lone star is a synonym for testing, because that is all that we do.
Practice by practice, the week of the announcement neared. Finally we had reached that day. My coach told us that we would know who are alternates by exactly 3:30 p.m that Friday. During school I was tensed about my result. I barely payed attention in Math class(a class I love!!) and was extremely confused about what to do. In recess, instead of running around and playing, I sat in a corner reading a book. Later that day, when I reached home, I went straight to my computer. The time was 3:10. I waited intensely for 20 minutes. At 3:27, I opened a website called google classroom. I went into the lone star page and waited. The clock ticked. 3:28....3:29. Meanwhile, I was praying to not be an alternate. 58 seconds, 59 seconds,and 3:30. On google classroom, the stream was updated. I clicked on "reload", to see the result.My heart was beating so fast as it was loading. Sweat trickled down my cheeks.A chill went up my spine. Bing! There it was, my result. The sentence that stated my......FAILURE! I was chosen as ALTERNATE!!! As you can see, I've trailed all the way back to where I started, my melancholics. It felt like my heart stopped. All that work gone to waste. It was sickening! I couldn't help but feel ashamed of myself. Some how, by the end of the day, I stopped crying and calmed down a bit. But the memory still lingered in my heart.
3 weeks later- "Now, we want recognize a group of students that participated in the Lone Star Challenge!"my Principe yelled at the top of her lungs. All of us, even the alternates, had to go up on stage. They gave out medals to everyone(except alternates) and the audience gave us a round of applause. My cheeks burned with fury. How could they? It would have been better to have said that I was an alternate, hence I didn't get any medals.But what happened on stage felt like I was part of the team and that I sucked. Also, alternates should at least get a certificate for doing all the tests each week and doing all the homework. But no. I felt totally disrespected.
If I could give advice to the teachers/coaches, I would ask them if you really need alternates. This isn't a sport game.Once you are in, you don't get scrape your knee and sit out. For the amount of effort people put in for Lone Star,every body is going to turn up at the tournament. Why have a test to see the best 11 out of 75,and then see the best 9 out of 11?Why? So, heed my words. Unless you want to end up felling the way I did, do NOT do Lone Star.People say that trying doesn't hurt, but in Lone Star it does. You can try doing Lone Star if your school does it, but don't tell nobody warned the consequences you will face if you aren't in the team. And if you do, just do your best!
"Attention students. If you tried out for the Lone Star Challenge team, the names I call will tell who has made it to Lone Star. From fourth grade, Vaishnavi, Aditya,......And now for fifth grade,Pari, Olivia, Tanush, Ayush,Sanjana, Arkadeep, AND SHREYA!!!" The Lone Star coaches announced over the loud speaker.Hearing this, I screamed up and down with joy.😍My teacher congratulated me and so did my friends. I felt like I was really special. I felt like a bright star floating in the galaxy.But I had yet to know what I was going to face...
On the bus I usually sit in the back, but today, I sat in the front, so that I can reach home quicker. I was looking forward to reaching home and surprising my mom about the event.I knocked on the door and tried to control my happiness. But I couldn't. As soon as I stepped into my house, I yelled out the news. We both jumped up and down with joyousness. I immediately called my friend and told her about my achievement. Moments after I returned to the Earth from my planet, I remembered that only 9 out of the 11 people will get to actually participate in the final tournament. The 2 remaining people will be considered as alternates. Because of this, I started reading the 2 packets of information that was given to me.
The Lone Star practices were every Tuesday after school.We had a novel called Hook's Revenge. It is about how Jocelyn Hook, Captain Hook's daughter goes through many challenges/obstacles to avenge her father's death by killing never land's most feared crocodile, the Tic-Tock-Croc. We were given this book because part of the competition is to write an essay that is related to this book. That is why it is mandatory to know this book inside out.We had two packets. One was on Pirates and privateers and the other on was on explorers and expeditions.
These were not hard to do. We also had to make 78 index cards on scientific vocabulary words. Also, we had to fill out a huge graphic organizer on the personalities of each character in the novel. This wasn't too pressurizing, but the homework load started increasing so much. Instead of sharing our thoughts on the novel and doing a little game to help us remember facts, we started doing tests each practice. We had to ''memorize'' a certain number of pages each week to prepare for a quiz(more like tests) the next practice. Let me just interrupt our talk here about my loss and let me give a tribute to my mom. Every week she went through a lot of hard work and made online quizzes on each chapter.It is hard to get questions from each line and give it 4 options that are not obvious. I really appreciate how my mom did as much as she could for me to succeeded. Thank you mom. Now, getting back to our conversation, to Indians reading this, you might feel that memorizing might be a piece of cake, but, when it is a matter of participating in an important competition or not, it is more stressful. More stressful than when it is a matter of a good grade or bad grade.In my opinion,Lone star is a synonym for testing, because that is all that we do.
Practice by practice, the week of the announcement neared. Finally we had reached that day. My coach told us that we would know who are alternates by exactly 3:30 p.m that Friday. During school I was tensed about my result. I barely payed attention in Math class(a class I love!!) and was extremely confused about what to do. In recess, instead of running around and playing, I sat in a corner reading a book. Later that day, when I reached home, I went straight to my computer. The time was 3:10. I waited intensely for 20 minutes. At 3:27, I opened a website called google classroom. I went into the lone star page and waited. The clock ticked. 3:28....3:29. Meanwhile, I was praying to not be an alternate. 58 seconds, 59 seconds,and 3:30. On google classroom, the stream was updated. I clicked on "reload", to see the result.My heart was beating so fast as it was loading. Sweat trickled down my cheeks.A chill went up my spine. Bing! There it was, my result. The sentence that stated my......FAILURE! I was chosen as ALTERNATE!!! As you can see, I've trailed all the way back to where I started, my melancholics. It felt like my heart stopped. All that work gone to waste. It was sickening! I couldn't help but feel ashamed of myself. Some how, by the end of the day, I stopped crying and calmed down a bit. But the memory still lingered in my heart.
3 weeks later- "Now, we want recognize a group of students that participated in the Lone Star Challenge!"my Principe yelled at the top of her lungs. All of us, even the alternates, had to go up on stage. They gave out medals to everyone(except alternates) and the audience gave us a round of applause. My cheeks burned with fury. How could they? It would have been better to have said that I was an alternate, hence I didn't get any medals.But what happened on stage felt like I was part of the team and that I sucked. Also, alternates should at least get a certificate for doing all the tests each week and doing all the homework. But no. I felt totally disrespected.
If I could give advice to the teachers/coaches, I would ask them if you really need alternates. This isn't a sport game.Once you are in, you don't get scrape your knee and sit out. For the amount of effort people put in for Lone Star,every body is going to turn up at the tournament. Why have a test to see the best 11 out of 75,and then see the best 9 out of 11?Why? So, heed my words. Unless you want to end up felling the way I did, do NOT do Lone Star.People say that trying doesn't hurt, but in Lone Star it does. You can try doing Lone Star if your school does it, but don't tell nobody warned the consequences you will face if you aren't in the team. And if you do, just do your best!
3 Comments
very deeply written.Don't feel sad for this.You will win many things in the future.
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DeleteThank you mom
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