THE LAST CONTEST I PARTOOK IN

I've not been involved in a lot of physical contests. Mostly because I had this aversion for things like that and social events in general. That hasn't changed much even now.

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Still, there's been a couple contests I got involved in. Best believe that for the most of them, I was coerced into participating. I rarely did those things of my own freewill.

Memories are hazy right now. But if I recall accurately, the last contest I got involved in happened in a group. I did little to nothing because I chose to. The other last one happened long years back.

So this was a church event. It involved a number of the church branches coming together to compete among themselves. There were different activities but i was chosen to handle Bible recitation. I reluctantly agreed to do it. And then I began learning the passage, in a while I had memorized it so well and although if given the opportunity I would choose to back out, I was certain of good delivery.
Then something happened.

The evening before the day for the event, the teens pastor came by my house to tell me that the Bible passage I had been given to record was incorrect. She told me the new one. You can imagine my shock. When I checked, the new passage was way longer than the last. My heart sank.

I still went ahead to study it. I was already in. The next day, in company of the rest of my church friends, we went for the event. I was tense. There was a crowd of people and that wasn't my scene.

Time for the recitation, the first person was called and they delivered smoothly. So did the second. At this point I was shaken and angry. I was the third competitor. When I was called upon, I slowly made my way to the podium. I took the stage and recited until the point I had learned(which was quite a lengthy). Once I was done, without wasting a minute, I walked away until I found myself outside. I was feeling sad, and very relieved. My cheeks had gotten wet at this point, I remember.

Shortly, all of my friends had joined me outside, cheering me, telling how so good I performed and all of that. When I gathered myself, we went back into the Hall. Recitations finished and some other activities rolled by.

Before the result for recitation was called, the host said something along the line of being impressed by the representative of my church for the recitation (me). Apparently, every other competitor except me had been informed of the change in Bible passage about a week prior. The mistake was from their end. An oversight.

To cut long story short, when result was called, I came third position. You'd think I was excited, I wasn't. I was just glad stuff was over. But also, I was glad I didn't duck. I faced the fear and did quite well.

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