WASTED HOPE

I had finally got the big news after months of trying to be heard. It was funny how I didn't even put much effort in writing a piece that was recognized and recommended for commendation. I was going about my daily activities online when I saw a comment I almost ignored. It was already late in the middle of the night, and I decided to check for the purpose of clearing my notifications when I realized the notification was more than a comment, it was a nomination that came in about 24 minutes ago. The stupid piece I had forcefully written with sleepy eyes had been nominated for a weekly award. To say that I was overly ecstatic was an understatement, all forms of emotions running through me, but like I would always do, I tried to keep it cool.

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I knew I had to act quickly if I wanted to get a shot at winning a long awaited nomination. But then I realized that I had to compete with a big name in the industry, he is a very popular and way better writer than I am. This did not stop me from pursuing my dream of finally winning the award, I thought of begging my major competitor who had won back to back awards in the past to give me a chance to win this one after checking his stats and seeing he was winning at different levels for other professional skills he had. But then again, I knew it wouldn't be possible, life doesn't give you want you want Kelvin, if you want it enough, you would have to go for it (I said to myself hoping to find some motivations.)

I found out how late I was already even though I had sprung into action immediately I saw the notification. I needed to campaign for votes, but my opponent had already seen the notification early enough to have campaigned among the majority space pulling in the crowd that was readily available and thus leaving me to fight for scrubs. It was disheartening hearing people say; "I'm sorry someone was here before you". This though didn't stop me from hoping I still had a chance, I reached out to those I could reach that night and took 30% of the vote leaving him with a whooping 70%.

I got up that morning, highly motivated to beat my competitor. I didn't just want to win because I love to win, I needed to win because I was badly in need of the prize money. I was already in debt, and winning would be securing the interest of my loan In the coming month and thinking about this was all the motivation I needed to tell myself I could pull it off. Now I decided to dig deeper by going into spaces I wasn't familiar with, getting my hands dirty by begging for votes and trying to see if I could get people who would campaign for me. Unfortunately, I got a lot of crowd, of which 70% didn't either know how to vote or had issues with the voting mechanism.

Soon enough, I was trailing my opponent 47% to 53% in votes. This meant with a little more effort I might finally be able to pull it off, but checking the poll an hour later, my opponent was making efforts to extend his lead leaving voting stats at 42% to 58%. I thought to myself; I can still make this happen if I dig a bit deeper. But then I realized the day was already far gone and I had spent all day digging for votes without physically achieving anything tangible. I opted to go about some important daily activities which involved a little cleaning and eating, only to sleep off afterwards in a bid to continue from where I stopped. My body needed time to relax and I wasn't letting myself have any of it until I finally broke down and fell asleep.

I woke up on Sunday morning being the last day I had to fulfill my dream of hitting the weekly jackpot, but I was again disappointed to see my opponent had further made efforts to extend his lead by 38% to 62%. Still I said to myself; "I can do it, I just need to keep pushing". I started off my vote search as early as I could. I was on my phone all day even though I went to church, worked with the crowd control unit in church, and did some bible study lessons that took major parts of my day. I only gave a 20% concentrating presence to whatever activity I did in church, only to finally find more people who were ready to vote for me but ended up voting for my opponent because they thought I was already leading and never bothered reading instructions.

I did not state clearly these instructions with an assumption that they already knew. Now my mistake caused me to further decline in the poll as my opponent kept the lead by 32% to 68%. I almost gave up at this point as it was already getting late. But I decided I would have one more try. I went on to form friendships with unfamiliar people, voting for others who were in a poll of their own just to get votes myself with some still making the same mistake the former set made even though I had stated the information very clearly. I managed to get to 40% votes leaving my opponent at 60% and finally gave up having put in all I had. Now I can only look forward and pray for another opportunity.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO THE INKWELL CREATIVE NONFICTION PROMPT FOR THE WEEK.