Let the setting of the story be rewinded few years back.
A little girl was all set to attend her first ever school day. Everything’s new: shoes, uniform, bag, pencils, notebooks, crayons and lot of kiddie school stuff that a typical kindergarten student would have. Her favorite among her school things was that grayish, rectangular paper pad with red and blue lines on it. It was where she learned how to draw that first straight line, not so perfect circle, the crooked big and small letters of the ABC as well as 123. The basics that she learned amazingly fast. Maybe she’s gifted or maybe she’s just motivated, no one knows.
One day her teacher told them to memorize the first ten numbers for an oral recitation test the next day. She’s excited as usual and even forced her mom to let her memorize not only the first ten numbers but the first hundred. She just can’t wait for the sun to rise the next day and be in school for the oral recitation.
“One, two, three, four... eight, nine, ten!”, she said pronouncing every word properly infront of her amazed classmates and teacher. Then they applauded, but wait, she’s not finish yet as she continued reciting. “Eleven, twelve, thirteen... twenty!” she said proudly. “Wow!, very good, very good, you may now take your seat, you are very good,” her teacher said to politely stop her.
She’s proud of herself, and even at the back of her mind she continued counting up to the hundredth without even bothering to listen to her other classmates’ recitation.
The entire school year was all about her having perfect scores in almost all subjects. She used to get the highest rank every Honors’ Day holding her father’s hand up the stage to get her Honors’ Card. Not until one day, her “yaya” (nanny) told her that in the coming Honors’ Day, she won't be having the first rank. With her eyes wide open, heart pounding so fast and tears starting to fall from her eyes, at the back of her mind she said “no! it couldn’t be! What did I do?”. Her nanny continued to tease her and when they arrived home her talkative nanny shared the sad news to her parents.
She can clearly see the upset look of her father and her mother approached her. Before her mom could say anything, she started crying. Her mom calmed her down and told her that she should avoid watching TV during the night because that might have caused the decrease in her grades.
That night she couldn’t sleep. She’s clearly hurt and continued crying and was not even excited for the Honors’ Day the next day. She’s too shy to get the second rank card and she knows that the audience would be whispering at that moment against her.
Honors’ Day came and everyone’s ready for the event, her talkative nanny was also attending at her dismay. The top five students of the academic period would be given recognition during Honors’ Day and for the first time, she noticed every detail of the event. During the previous Honors’ Day, her mind usually focused on that moment that her name would be called to get the first rank and nothing more. She usually ignore the other students who will be getting the other award because she simply didn’t care. However, on that particular Honors’ day, she observed each and every student up on stage and the boy who went up to get the third rank caught her attention. He’s accompanied by his mom and his eyes was sparkling with so much joy. Sincere happiness was all over his aura and it seems that his rank wasn’t that much of an issue to him.
A certain feeling of guilt covered her entire self that time thinking about what she’s feeling. The boy on the third rank was very happy while she's hating herself for getting the second rank. The boy’s happiness and attitude on that day has become her inspiration since then. That failure that her nanny had been ranting to her everyday had become a blessing in disguise instead. Because of that failure, she learned to humble herself and accept that sometimes you’re not always on top.
From then on, she was able to notice her classmates and pays attention whenever they share something in front. She continued to study hard and even finished her kindergarten with the highest rank. Of course she can’t foget that 3rd rank boy on stage with positive aura as he ramained to be her inspiration.
Now she’s confident enough that wherever elementary school she will be placed, she can survive the pressure. With her parents’ support and that inspiration that she had during her kindergarten years is more than enough for her.
Up Next: Chapter Two: The Intelligent Crowd -niceurdaneta-
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