Yesterday I found out what it is to still keep one's head up despite a fall. Literally and Figuratively.
Literal:
I had to be at school at 8:30 am to meet up with my team mates for the semi finals at the Dean's cup debate.
Going to school at rush hour entails me to take four public transportation: a jeep, an fx, a jeep and another jeep. I was worried I would be late so upon alighting the first jeep and walking a short distance to get to the fx, I was overtaking people but the next thing I knew, the ground had suddenly become nearer to me. Both my hands were touching the ground and my right knee was supporting my weight yet in an instant I helped myself up whilst carrying my heavy backpack and shoulder bag and acted as if nothing happened and headed for the fx.
Before meeting up with my team mates who ran late, I headed to the clinic and requested for my wound to be cleaned. As the nurse was cleaning it, I shared that the last time I tripped and scraped my knee was way back in second grade. The punitive yet kind nurse upon finding out that I was a senior said that if I were her daughter she'd pinch me for being careless.
Figurative:
Upon listening to the first minute of the adjudicator's general comments on the debate about the motion: THW privatize police which was the chosen motion by our competitor for winning the toss coin, I knew our team lost.
There were no hard feelings of course and our team happily congratulated the CDE department and bade them luck at the finals.
Ate Iris who is a Debate Alumni told me that the policy our house created was difficult to support but added that what's important is that we had fun.
There are those days that things won't go as hoped for but it's a learning experience. I've learned that preparation is key. Why was I worried about being late in the first place? Because I knew I crammed studying for prelims in French, our ppt for Dev Comm report, and my research on crime and punishment. Why did we lose at the semis? Because we weren't able to train and practice constructive and rebuttal speeches in the span of four days given to us to prepare.
Yet there's no use in dwelling on shortcomings. At best we won't repeat these actions and walk away as a bruise-free winner and at worst we will keep on encountering these types of situations until it's painful enough for us to endure and finally say, things will go as hoped for and as planned for.
