National Reading Month 2017
Same time last year, when Mitch was on her first grade, she also attended this kind of celebration, they participated in the "Sabayang Basa in Visayan" category back then, together with 14 or more of her classmates. Imagine how time flies so fast. It was like yesterday when I was nagging her to practice their piece, instructing her the proper way to do it and now we are doing the same, but this time its more serious because it's her all alone, competing for the "tula" competition.
Although I still can't believe why she was chosen, I had to set my mind that I have to prepare her for that day because let's face it mothers, we are more excited and nervous for stuff like that than our kids. We practiced every night, we even practiced with microphone, I wanted badly for her to have the confidence because God knows how shy and quiet she is. I don't want to put her in a situation wherein she'll be humiliated because she forgot her piece and ruin all the efforts she exerted. I want her to be competitive and not think about anything else because more than anything else I want her to learn a lot from this experience.
For this year, I decided to take the morning off from work since it's the first time that she'll be competing on her own. I want to capture everything and I want to support her and give her the assurance that win or lose, Mamay is always there for her. We were really early that day, 7 AM we were already at the school only to find out that we're the only people in there. Whatever happened to the 7AM call time? Typical Pinoy!
We arrived at City Central School around 8AM, the place was already crowded. We waited almost an hour before the activity finally began. The kids were divided according to the category they were competing. For us, we were assigned at a Computer room, it was air conditioned which made it more hard to fight not to be nervous. Yes, I was nervous as much as my daughter who was competing. I gave her the final instructions as we listened to other kids who presented, because we were 10th to present. First 5 were okay, I can say, just about my daughter's so I was more motivated to instruct her to do better than them. Then came the 2nd batch of 5, my daughter included, the kids in this batch were really good. I can tell that the judges loved their performances because one of the judges took picture of those kids who did really well. Then my daughter's turn, I can sense and see that she was really nervous. She was so stiff standing in front, her left hand was clenched into a fist. She was fighting her fear, I can see that clearly and I am very proud at that alone. My shy little girl conquered her fear and delivered her "tula" without missing a line or word. I was capturing that on video but to my luck the memory went off and I was left with 13 second video, just about the start of her "tula". I am very frustrated that my phone did not cooperate. It was supposed to be a milestone for me and for my daughter. I was supposed to show to the rest of the family how he performed. I was super proud of her despite not winning because I know that she presented her school very well. She did her best despite being so nervous, she delivered her piece smoothly although the facial expression was not present but I was still so proud because all along I was praying that she'll not run away from it. I was even crossing my fingers that she'll not stiff in front or worse cry. I was proud because she did it. She may not be the winner but for me she won in her own rights. After the competition, I cheered her up and assured that she did well. She said she did try her best and that's good enough for me. She learned from that experience, I know and she'll gonna use it for future competitions.
That was an experience that for sure she'll forever treasure. I am proud of you little girl, please know that!
Mamay
Although I still can't believe why she was chosen, I had to set my mind that I have to prepare her for that day because let's face it mothers, we are more excited and nervous for stuff like that than our kids. We practiced every night, we even practiced with microphone, I wanted badly for her to have the confidence because God knows how shy and quiet she is. I don't want to put her in a situation wherein she'll be humiliated because she forgot her piece and ruin all the efforts she exerted. I want her to be competitive and not think about anything else because more than anything else I want her to learn a lot from this experience.
For this year, I decided to take the morning off from work since it's the first time that she'll be competing on her own. I want to capture everything and I want to support her and give her the assurance that win or lose, Mamay is always there for her. We were really early that day, 7 AM we were already at the school only to find out that we're the only people in there. Whatever happened to the 7AM call time? Typical Pinoy!
 |
| after the competition |
 |
| video clip of her tula |
We arrived at City Central School around 8AM, the place was already crowded. We waited almost an hour before the activity finally began. The kids were divided according to the category they were competing. For us, we were assigned at a Computer room, it was air conditioned which made it more hard to fight not to be nervous. Yes, I was nervous as much as my daughter who was competing. I gave her the final instructions as we listened to other kids who presented, because we were 10th to present. First 5 were okay, I can say, just about my daughter's so I was more motivated to instruct her to do better than them. Then came the 2nd batch of 5, my daughter included, the kids in this batch were really good. I can tell that the judges loved their performances because one of the judges took picture of those kids who did really well. Then my daughter's turn, I can sense and see that she was really nervous. She was so stiff standing in front, her left hand was clenched into a fist. She was fighting her fear, I can see that clearly and I am very proud at that alone. My shy little girl conquered her fear and delivered her "tula" without missing a line or word. I was capturing that on video but to my luck the memory went off and I was left with 13 second video, just about the start of her "tula". I am very frustrated that my phone did not cooperate. It was supposed to be a milestone for me and for my daughter. I was supposed to show to the rest of the family how he performed. I was super proud of her despite not winning because I know that she presented her school very well. She did her best despite being so nervous, she delivered her piece smoothly although the facial expression was not present but I was still so proud because all along I was praying that she'll not run away from it. I was even crossing my fingers that she'll not stiff in front or worse cry. I was proud because she did it. She may not be the winner but for me she won in her own rights. After the competition, I cheered her up and assured that she did well. She said she did try her best and that's good enough for me. She learned from that experience, I know and she'll gonna use it for future competitions.
That was an experience that for sure she'll forever treasure. I am proud of you little girl, please know that!
Mamay
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