It was a summer I’ll never forget; When a series of events changes your life forever one seldom does forget. Though how it all began is a bit hazy, I’ll do my best to tell you what happened. My name is ____________ _____________ and this is my story.
It was the year 2007 I was 19 years old soon to be turning twenty later in the year. I came from a family that was about as normal as any family that could be found in the world. We lived in a small town that didn’t see very much excitement, needless to say the same could be said for me.
It was about mid March to early April that a contest was starting; An anouncment was made saying that it was open to people between the ages of 16 through 25 in North America. They wanted to make the contest world wide but realized that communication conflicts would arise and something like that wasn’t wanted. They did however promise to countries being left out that similar contests would be held for them sometime in the future. As for the contest itself entry was in the form of an essay of at least one thousand words discussing why you, the writers, think you deserve a place in the grand prize; Which, get this, was an all expense-paid trip to England, to stay in a newly restored castle just outside of London, where any female who won would be treated like a princess, and any male who won would be treated like a prince, or so they said, but I’m not going to say any more on that and spoil the story you’ll just have to continue reading. In total 10 females and 10 males, five from each country, would be selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity. I of course desperately wanted too win . . . as did every other person in the age group, except for my sister, who wasn’t really into that sort of thing, weird.
I spent a lot of time daydreaming about winning the contest, for a normal person like me winning such things didn’t happen often, or well ever. But I was determined to give it all and win. Saying I was going to do something is a lot easier than actually doing it, or so I found out as I started writing the essay. There are three types of people in this sort of thing; You have the “well this is easy” thinker that will rush at it just to get their entry in before the deadline. As a result they completely ruin their chances because their essays don’t make sense and they didn’t put much thought into the essay which shows that, that particular person doesn’t deserve it. The second type of person is someone who is well off in life, then lies about how terrible their lives are, just to catch a higher chance of winning, and although some of those people could be very good writers and persuaders, most would be seen as obvious liars because they have no idea of the true hardships of those who live in that exact type of life these people are lying about in the first place. Last but not least you have those who think “this is going to be hard.” Those kinds of people are the ones more likely too win for the following reasons: one, they take their time making sure they’ve worded everything, correctly. Two, they’ve been more than likely honest in everything they’ve written. Three, They’ve put more thought into the essay than the other two types of people and will over all be more convincing to the panel of judges for the contest. There is however one smaller group that fits somewhere in all of these types of people; They are the not so coherent writers but have enough passion and thought for such things that the lack of coherence is ignored. So naturally my not being that great a writer, I fit into the small group and I had a lot of work ahead of me.
I did my best writing as clearly as I could, and with as much passion and honesty as I could. I forget now what I’d written, I haven’t seen the essay since I put it in the envelope and mailed it off to the contest headquarters. Otherwise I’d tell you now what I had written.
I remember getting my boyfriend, whom I’d met through means that many people found wrong and dangerous, to enter the contest as well just for fun. He seemed reluctant at first but eventually told me that he had entered too. It wasn’t like either of us expected to be chosen out of the thousands of entries being submitted any way.
After that we played a waiting game, it made me anxious most of all wanting the day the winners were announced to come faster and faster. I don’t know why I felt that way about it I mean in the end I was only going to be disappointed since there was no way I was ever going too win.
Since I waited, I’m going to make you wait a little longer, and I’ll tell you a little about myself, since all you know so far is my name and how old I was when this all began. As I said I was 19 then, my birthday is November 14. As far as family goes I have a younger sister, who at that time was 17, and then my parents. How should I describe myself... let’s see, I have just over shoulder length copper blonde hair, not my natural hair color, well actually my hair is a mix of my natural color, dark blonde, blonde, and Copper blonde. (I dyed my own hair a lot, and I was terrible at it.) I’m also about 5' 4" tall and about average in about everything else; I’ve never been good at describing what I look like I might think of things I’ve missed or things you’ll need to know later on, or maybe you’ll just figure them out on your own. Anyway on with the story.
A few months passed and finally the day came for the winners to be announced. I sat on the chair outside my bedroom door staring at the screen; Waiting for the announcement to be made, and I’m sure every other person in the world that had actually cared had been in the same position as me. The founder of the contest made a speech thanking all the contestants and blah, blah, blah, blah. Anxiety was killing me at this point. He finally asked for an envelope with the names of the twenty winners concealed inside. He opened the envelope and the crowd surrounding the stage he was one fell silent as did more than likely all people in the world except for the animals and creatures who wouldn’t have known the difference. With anticipation we waited and he began reading off the names, females first:
1. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
2. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
3. ____________________ from __________,__________ (CA)
4. *insert name of Main characters person they detest* from* insert main characters person they detest’s city* ,*insert main characters person they detest’s Province
5. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
6.*Insert name of Main characters former Best friend*from *insert main characters former best friend’s City,*insert main characters former best friends province*
7. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
8. ____________________ from __________,__________ (CA)
9. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
10.*insert main characters name*from *insert main characters City*,*insert main Characters Province*
As the names were being read I kept hoping my name would be read even though it was very unlikely. The strangest thing occurred though, two of the names that had been read sounded vaguely familiar, it took awhile to figure out why. These people had been people I knew in places I had lived previously; one had been one of my former best friends and the other was someone who I just simply didn’t like and it would take far too long to explain why. If what had just happened hadn’t been enough of a shock already, the last name read sent me into an entirely different world, not literally by the way. It was my name that had been read. I was stunned, I couldn’t move, and the chirping of people suddenly talking to me on MSN annoyed me. Some people were congratulating me, others were expressing their jealousy, though at the time of course I didn’t know that, I was still frozen to the spot. Both my sister and my dad who had been watching with me just stared at me; Staring at this person who had just won this contest along with 19 other people out of thousands of people the two countries, I’m sure the other winners had been just like me in those, frozen to the spot.
I snapped to some sort of awakened stated as the founder prepared to move onto the names of the 10 males who had won. There were two names on that list I really could have done without, but one name put me into an even further shock. The names read as follows:
1. ____________________ from __________,__________ (CA)
2. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
3. ____________________ from __________,__________ (CA)
4. *insert name of Main characters #1 Person they could have done without* from*Main character’s #1 Person they could have done without’s city* ,*insert main characters #1 Person they could have done without’s State)
5. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
6.*Insert name of Main characters #2 Person they could have done without *from *insert main characters #2 Person they could have done without’s City,*Insert Main character’s #2 Person they could have done without’s province*
7. ____________________ from __________,__________ (US)
8. ____________________ from __________,__________ (CA)
9. *Insert name of Main characters sent into further shock person*from *sent into further shock person’s City,*Insert Main character’s sent into further shock person’s State*
10.____________________ from __________,__________ (CA)
When I heard _________________ name, I nearly died of shock, or at least it felt like I was dying of shock, my boyfriend had won too! I could hear more chirps come from my computer suggesting more people wanting to talking to me on MSN, but I couldn’t move of my own free will. What were the odds of something like that happening? To put it simply it seemed impossible. The next thing I knew was that the tv had been shut off and my sister had thrown a pillow at me to get my attention. Like a robot I slowly craned my head toward her, half in a daze still entirely consumed by shock I stared at her.
“Are you living?” She asked throwing another pillow at me. I nodded my head slightly slowly snapping out of my daze.
“Yeah . . . ” I said “just, you know . . . Shocked . . . “ I explained as I turn back to the T.V. wondering why it’s been shut off.
“All the winners were announced the guy said some sort of Contest official will be escorting each of the winners to the airport and to the castle in a few weeks. “ My sister said as if reading my mind “lucky brat!” She said as if she was jealous as she headed off to her room. She could have entered, but she wasn’t interested in something like that.
“Oh and by the way your MSN has been going off nonstop” she said turning back looking at me with her usual annoyed look.
‘Oh Crap!’ I thought as I rushed to my computer to see what was going on. It was hard to keep up with everyone, it was strange how people who hadn’t talked to me in years started talking to me out of nowhere. It was like all of a sudden they wanted to be my friends again and had a sudden change of heart . . . yeah right, like I’m really that stupid to fall for that.
I talked to so many people in those moments that it’s hard to really say who said what and what I said to whom, so I can’t tell you what was said. I was still very overwhelmed by the news that my boyfriend, my former best friend, three people I didn’t want to have anything to do with, and I had won this contest along with fifteen others; All of whom it was only a matter of time before I met. It had occurred to me then that I would be meeting my boyfriend for the first time, and I suddenly became nervous. Once again the world began to fade away and I was left with myself and my own thoughts . . .
