By Anna Ly
Genazzano FCJ College
I remember going to my very first Twilight Sports in grade three and running my first sprint against all my classmates.
Ready, set, go! The loud bang of the gun shot in the air and I ran.
My feet left the starting line and my hopes and dreams of winning the greatest prize was possibly going to become a reality. I ran wildly with my little arms moving in a backwards and forwards motion and my legs were pushing themselves to their full potential. I ran along the great orange and red track of the East Burwood Reserve. I was proud to be representing grade three of the school. I was in the red team and I knew my friends were going to be really jealous after they found out what I was going to get. Still running down the track with ‘incredible speed’, I looked to my left to just take a peek to see if anyone was at the stage of getting ahead of me and just as I turned my face back ahead, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the colour of a yellow shirt running up to my side. She was beating me! I pushed further down the track. Everything I passed was a blur and the only thing fixed on my mind was the glory of getting the greatest prize of all, the ribbons. I could hear my team cheering for me, especially my sister. My thin, cheap glasses were bobbing up and down my face just as I made it past the line of victory. I walked to the prize table.
Unfortunately, I came second.
But I didn’t care! It was the greatest day of my life! I’d never received a ribbon and just the way my classmates always came the next day to school after this sports event with their ribbons, still pinned to their shirt, was so cool in my eyes. It impressed all their friends, so I thought if I had one of these ribbons, I would impress my friends too. In my grade, ribbons were considered way much cooler than the large smiggle pencil cases. I wore my ribbon that read ‘SECOND’ on the left of my red T-shirt and was walking back to my team area with a confident stance. I could see my mum waving at me behind the short wired fence just to the right of the track. She was soon making her way to me. Another bang of the gun had already gone off and all the sport teams immediately erupted again into loud cheer. I noticed to the right of my team was my friend, Jess. She who wore her yellow shirt, was wearing a navy blue ribbon which read ‘FIRST’! I couldn’t believe it! I was meant to impress her with my maroon ribbon! Now everyone was going to be amazed at her for not only getting a ribbon, but coming first! My wide smile slowly began to sink as I felt unhappy for my win. Tears were forming in my eyes and I let them fall onto the waterproof picnic mat. I soon started crying ,attracting weird glances my way.
“Come on Anna be happy! You tried your best, you came second and you got a ribbon! Be proud of yourself.” My mum was crouching down and looking up at me with her proud, gleaming eyes. “But mum, I can’t impress my friends! She came first and I came second.I’m the loser and to make it worse I’m the rotten egg!” I cried. “You’re not a rotten egg in my eyes! You’re a winner!” At that moment I stopped crying and I began to take in what she just said. Mum always made me happy and I knew that she was proud of me. She even said I was the winner! That was all it took for my grin to return on my face. I was the winner! I wasn’t the rotten egg! Ribbons still mattered to me, but I just let my friend off this one time. I made an oath with myself that next time I would get the navy blue ribbon. And that ribbon would be proudly pinned on my red T-shirt. But for now, my mum thought I was the winner and that was all that mattered.
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