Thursday, March 18, 2010

Scholarship, Leadership, and Citizenship


I'm a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it! - Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was a very wise man and he certainly knew what he was talking about when he said this! I have been able to witness the "LUCK" that my hard work has provided me! As most of you probably know, news travels fast, that I was awarded the Social Science Sterling Scholar on Tuesday. And along with a lot of excitement I feel relieved and overjoyed!
Tuesday was the awards ceremony, it was also our game against Emery, which I had to miss, and I wasn't very happy about that, but I guess it all paid off in the end. All day long I was antsy, anxious to know whether or not I had earned anything for my efforts. I didn't want to get my hopes up, so I kept telling myself that no matter what I was thankful for the opportunity, which is mostly true! In fact I didn't feel good about it at all, I thought my interview went good, but not great- which is weird for me because I LOVE interviews (I know I am weird like that).
A bunch of the Sterling Scholars from my school car pooled over together so that we could check out all the portfolios that were in our categories. I thought I would enjoy looking and comparing my book to other students, however it only made me that much more unsure of myself. At that point I felt nauseas and so uneasy, I had almost lost all hope. All the Sterling Scholar candidates and everyone else involved ran through the program so that we knew what was required of us if we won. (a side note: I have decided that I only sweat in my armpits when I am really nervous- I had tacos bad! and I even applied deodorant three times before I left my house!)
Finally the ceremony started, and though it was good it felt as if it lasted for a very very long time- not to mention that the stage was freezing!. . . My category came up! They announced the runners-up, I thought that if I was going to get anything it would be a runner up, when my name wasn't called I figured that I wasn't in. . . AND then the announcer started reading the bio of the winner. The first words out of his mouth was, "This scholar is know for being Loyal. . . " at that moment I knew it was me. In my book I focused attributes of a great scholar besides just good grades, high test scores, and the honor role!
IT WAS ME! yeah! SHOCK! I had a flash back when I was walking up to the front of the stage of Jr. Miss North Sevier! I was so surprised to have won and again I found myself in disbelief. I was handed my certificate and a few pictures were taken then I got to sit with the rest of the sterling scholar winners in the front. . HOWEVER being my graceful self on my way to my "winner chair" I knocked over a few signs and had to pick them up- despite a moment of embarrassment I was quickly brought back to the reality that I had won!
(long relief filled sigh of satisfaction!)
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

1 comment:

team cowan said...

Congrats sista! You're awesome! I wish I could have been there to see it all go down (including the signs... heh heh heh...).