(no subject)
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. I JUST WON A CONTEST FOR A TWO-WEEK TRIP TO ENGLAND OVER THE SUMMER, I KID YOU NOT. *SPLODE*
Okay, okay, so here's how it all went down -- there was this essay contest that the British-American Business Council put up that my school system sponsored, specifically for juniors. All you had to do was write an essay about which British person you'd most like to meet and why, and you could win a free two-week trip to England with a study group of other kids from around the USA to see all these historic sites and do all this cool stuff. This, I thought, equated to an epic win, so I decided to do it.
So, after some initial waffling (my two original choices, CS Lewis and Bono, are actually Irish and therefore didn't count) I went with JRR Tolkien, who was my childhood literary BFF and whose work made me want to be a writer myself. And so I wrote what I thought was a fairly decent essay, turned it in, and got a call last week that I was a finalist and needed to go downtown for an interview.
I did. There were two members of the town's chapter of the BABC there, the nicest old English man and lady I've met in quite a while. They sort of informally asked me questions about why I loved Tolkien, why I wanted to be a writer, what I might get out of this trip, and that sort of thing. And then they told me I'd find out the results at some point this week.
Well, at the end of the day today, out of the blue, a random office staff person waltzed into class and handed me a slip of paper, telling me I'd won "an, um, an essay contest of some kind?" I about passed out from surprise and glee, and wound up doing some truncated flaily dance at my desk. So, yeah. Apparently next week I get to go downtown again and get briefed for the mission, as it were, but oh my gosh, guys, I'm so excited. My writing is actually getting me somewhere in life. *twirls delightedly*
Okay, okay, so here's how it all went down -- there was this essay contest that the British-American Business Council put up that my school system sponsored, specifically for juniors. All you had to do was write an essay about which British person you'd most like to meet and why, and you could win a free two-week trip to England with a study group of other kids from around the USA to see all these historic sites and do all this cool stuff. This, I thought, equated to an epic win, so I decided to do it.
So, after some initial waffling (my two original choices, CS Lewis and Bono, are actually Irish and therefore didn't count) I went with JRR Tolkien, who was my childhood literary BFF and whose work made me want to be a writer myself. And so I wrote what I thought was a fairly decent essay, turned it in, and got a call last week that I was a finalist and needed to go downtown for an interview.
I did. There were two members of the town's chapter of the BABC there, the nicest old English man and lady I've met in quite a while. They sort of informally asked me questions about why I loved Tolkien, why I wanted to be a writer, what I might get out of this trip, and that sort of thing. And then they told me I'd find out the results at some point this week.
Well, at the end of the day today, out of the blue, a random office staff person waltzed into class and handed me a slip of paper, telling me I'd won "an, um, an essay contest of some kind?" I about passed out from surprise and glee, and wound up doing some truncated flaily dance at my desk. So, yeah. Apparently next week I get to go downtown again and get briefed for the mission, as it were, but oh my gosh, guys, I'm so excited. My writing is actually getting me somewhere in life. *twirls delightedly*