The Day I Realized I Can Do It
“Please bless our fellow Ignatian, Patricia
Anne Marie Nengasca on her contest for today, the Population Education and
Development Quiz Bee. . .” It was a bright sunny day when my teachers and
schoolmates offered their prayers for me on my competition that 29th
day of November 2011. After the wishes of good luck from my teachers and
friends, Mr. Rex Cañete, my coach and I were set to go. And before the day was
over, we told each other that we were out to bring home the prize.
The contest was held at the building
of the Commission on Higher Education along Quirino Avenue Davao City
We were a total of fifty students
from different public and private schools on the same division level. After the
first phase, they said only the top twenty students will be chosen to continue
on to the last phase. I observed that everyone, especially the coaches seemed
to know each other very well. A very weird thing during competitions but it
seemed that they had been doing Pop Ed every year which made me a little
scared. Before I knew it, they gave me the paper with a number sixteen on it,
which served as my identity number all throughout the contest, and I was
assigned to sit on the far left side of the room with a girl from Calinan. All
the coaches were seated at the far back of the room, cheering silently for their
students. Then, the contest finally began. Everyone was asked to keep
quiet.
The first phase of the contest was a
multiple choice. The proctor started stating the questions and while I was
answering each question, I could not believe myself for being completely at
ease. All the while, I was just staring at the clouds that could be seen
through the small rectangular glass window on the topmost corner of the wall in
front of me. After thirty questions, we were already done and were asked to
take a break. Sir Rex and I went to the small canteen downstairs while waiting
for the results. After almost twenty minutes, we went back to the room. We
weren’t expecting anything, but we were still hoping for the best.
Getting inside the now crowded room
was difficult, I had to go back to my place but all the coaches were standing
right at my place while looking at the white board. My number was written on
the topmost part of the board so, we asked the officials what that meant. To
our great surprise, I topped the first phase! I remembered Sir was whispering,
“Salamat Lord! Binigay na sa atin ‘to!”
Yes, Lord Jesus gave it to us! “Thank you so much, Dear Lord,” I said to
myself. All our training paid off and our prayers were heard. It was now all up
to the last and final phase. I sighed and was suddenly pumped up to finish the
second phase.
We moved on to the second phase,
which was quite tricky because it was an identification type classified in
three rounds: easy, average and difficult. We were given enough sheets of paper
to write our answers, and which will be given to a CHED officer; she was the
one in-charge of our scores. The questions were thrown, the answers were
checked. Now, I was getting nervous while looking at the blue clouds outside.
I happened to drop low on last and
final phase. The CHED supervisors became very stringent when it came to our
answers. An example was the question: Who is the head of the household?
“Father” was my answer but they only accepted the answer, “father-husband.” The
situation made us confused because from last year’s Pop Ed, they accepted the
answer according to Sir Rex. I was getting a lot of errors like wrong spellings
and interchanged words. It was a major slap for me. I had studied those all too
familiar words, of course! But it seemed I got too confident with my first
standing. I got to move on so I still fought against the other nineteen
schools. Luckily, after the first two rounds I picked myself up on the
difficult round which pulled my place up on the second phase. Thanks to the
three points for each correct answer!
After everything was done, I knew I
would not be able to join the finals. I was sad and disappointed but I told
myself that at the very least, my dream came true. I was able to represent my
school and made it to the second phase. The results were in and only the top
five schools will receive the medals. I saw my score on the board and noticed
that I have the same score as someone from another school. The idea made me
lose my hope even more. What’s happening?
Do not let me fail. Not now, please. I kept looking at Sir Rex at the back
and he would always nod, letting me know that he also felt the same way that I
did.
The room was already silently
waiting for the announcement from the CHED Supervisor of Region XI. She said
that two students made it to the fifth place and since they had already decided
not to have a tie-breaker, both students will receive medals. I was lucky that
I was one of those students. I made it to the fifth place! The disappointment I
felt for myself was quickly wiped away. Sir Rex revealed to me that I was the
only student from a private school to make it to the top five. It was such an
honor! My heart was jumping up and down when I heard the news. Finally, we went
back to Colegio de San Ignacio with a valuable thing in my hand: a medal.
After three years, our school was
able to bring home a medal from the Population Education and Development Quiz
Bee. I may not have won the grand prize and I may not have reached the
nationals, but I was contented and I felt immeasurably happy because I did it!
I fought against my fears and doubts, and faced the competition with all the
determination in my heart. I realized I was a skeptical girl before but the
whole competition changed me, now I know I can do it!
