Literary Contest; An Awards Ceremony

Hello my dear readers, my journey has been extended!

A couple of weeks ago my classmates and I entered the literary competition held by The University of Puerto Rico. We were able to submit into three categories which were poetry, shorty stories and essays. Most of my classmates including myself, entered our works in the poem category. We had been working on our poems for a while already in our actual class and our professor had been helping us make corrections, therefore, I think we felt much more comfortable entering something that we had worked on for a while. Three of our classmates were part of the ceremony. Two of them were place winners while the third received an honorable mention. These three classmates are Luis, Nathan and Angel.

The award ceremony was in honor of a fallen professor which if I am not mistaken passed away from cancer a year ago. I thought that the way they read his poems was definitely a great way to honor him. Also his colleges honored him by giving us his biographical information and one of the professors even explained his poems. We were a bit pressed for time however, I think that most of us in the audience really appreciated having that brief interpretation of the poems before hearing them.

The awards ceremony was over pretty quickly however we did get a chance to hear the first place winners works. My favorite reading was the first place winner for the essay category. With the title ‘Do witches get financial aid’, I thought it was a brilliant analogy for many of the social and financial troubles we college students face. I would’ve loved to have been able to ask questions but we were pressed for time… If I’m not mistaken both classmates that were award recipients entered in the poem category. Our classmate Angel accepted his third place award with his lab coat on which I found pretty funny at the time. Second place went to Nathan however I don’t recall if he was present. He most likely was. Last but not last but not least was Luis that won a mention. Although I think he was in the story category. The remainder of the class was cheering them one from the final rows of the amphitheater.  The first place poem winner was a girl from a different class and I must admit her poem was amazing.

I think this experience taught us about the importance of cheering on for our comrades when they receive well deserved recognitions. I hope that we have the opportunity to do so in the future.