IT was a very disappointing loss. But I knew our daughter was going to lose the Storytelling Contest the moment the first contestant delivered the first three sentences. I could not help but cringe at my own daughter’s delivery of her story. It was that terrible. And I kept thinking if it was wise to let her go through something like this.
You see dearies, a few weeks before, she came home very excited because her teacher told them that they will have a Storytelling Contest. It just so happened that she just bought a book titled “Scaredy Kate.” It was about a little girl trying to cope with her fear of monsters that turned out to be not so fearsome after all. She believed it would be a winning piece.
I suggested that she select something else from the numerous books that we have in the tutorial center. The story was a bit short, although very action packed. But no, she said she was going to have fun scaring her classmates.
She loved that story! And she loved getting into the Kate character of the book. The day before the elimination round, she personally selected and bought the shirt, shorts and glasses so she could be Kate. She was confident for she had been practicing reading the story on her own since her teacher told them about the contest.
After school, she happily told us that she was part of the 10 contestants that would make it to the final round. BUT. And it would be The But that would change everything. Just as I predicted, her teacher thinks her story lacks depth and sent another book with our K. It was a book about being adopted and having a birthday.
We read the accompanying note that came with the book. We discussed it with our five-year-old. We asked her if she wanted to use the new book for the final round. We told her it’s all right if she decides not to join the final round. The decision is hers.
She decided to follow her teacher’s advice and use the other book. But clearly, her heart was not into it. And she had to learn the new story within a few days. That was not a good decision.
It broke my heart when she learned that she did not win and was trying to keep the tears at bay while we were still in public. And all those broken pieces were pulverized when we reached the car, when her tears freely fell, truly devastated over losing the competition.
We consoled her, but more importantly, we told her that her teacher meant well. She wanted K to win that is why she gave her another book to read. We also told her that it’s always like that; there will always be people who would give us advices. And it is up to us to take that advice or not. But in the end, we live with the consequences of that decision. If it results to winning, then all is fine. If it results to losing, then you live with the defeat and you learn from it.
She struggled to understand the complexity of it all. She struggled to gracefully face her defeat. She struggled to stop the tears.
It was heartbreaking seeing our beloved only child trying to cope with something like this. I kept asking myself, if I should have made the decision for her and spoke with her teacher and insisted that she used her original story.
Our dear K kept brooding over it for two days. She would voluntarily tell family members she lost and when they would say it’s ok, she would reply, “But I’m just so sad I lost.”
I was on edge for those two days and was about to research if five-year-olds could actually suffer from depression over losing a competition and wondered if there are local child psychiatrists that could undo the damage I had done. But thankfully, our little one came out of it all, emotionally stronger and so much wiser.
She would not get a Storytelling Contest medal at the end of this school year, but I know the life lesson she had learned is worth more than a ton of them. Besides, I told K there’s an Elocution Contest in January, a Spelling and Math contest in February. There are so many other chances to make a comeback and try to win a medal.
Cheers to raising kids!
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