Post Eleventh: Reflection about my Participation in the 47th Annual Literary Contest

The English Department from University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus did a literary contest in which they celebrated the 47th Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony to reward the winner students. The literary contest consisted about three categories: essay, short story and poetry. The students who want to participate had to submit an entry from the category that they wanted to participate. Despite the fact that I could not have the opportunity to attend the literary contest awards ceremony I had the opportunity to participate in the contest. For this reason I am going to talk in this reflection about my participation in the literary contest.

I had the opportunity to participate in the three categories, so I submitted three entries one for each category: essay, short story and poetry. I submitted: “A Puerto Rican Identity”, “Forgive Me” and “God is Present” for each category respectively. It was a honor be part of this important activity. I had never had the opportunity to participate in a literary contest and the experience was amazing. I really enjoyed be part of this wonderful activity. I did not wait to win a prize or anything in the contest because I knew that the people who are participating were very good. Just as I expected I did not win a prize. However for my surprise I received an electronic mail from the coordinator of the Literary Contest, Dr. James Penner, who notified me that my short story “Forgive Me” did not win a prize but the panel of judges praised its “originality”. This was a great new for me because I did not wait it, so I felt very proud and happy for myself.

Really, I felt very sad because I could not attend to the ceremony awards. However, this experience allowed me to learn that I can do whatever I want and that I can achieve my goals if I have determination and persistence. I did not win a prize, but just with the only mention I felt very proud. This meant a lot for me because the English has been very challenging in my whole life and the English represent one of the obstacles that I have had to overcome in my academic career. Thereby my participation in this literary contest meant more than just win a prizes. My participation in the literary contest meant in myself the overcoming of my fear and barrier to a language that I had seen as foreign language during a long time in my whole life. Definitively, I enjoyed a lot this experience and it was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate myself that I can do everything that I purpose. The clue is not the prize instead it is what the prize mean for yourself and the feeling of overcoming by your own work is the best feeling that a person could have.