NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED 

        My mother was the principal of the elementary school where I studied, she was a very busy woman with many responsibilities, however she made sure that my twin sister and I learned very well the importance of collaborating and participating in all the matters and events of the school without our age mattering, for that reason we always participated in sports contests, speech, poetry, dances and any event that meant to represent our elementary school and make it known. when we finished elementary school, we continued to high school, now my father was the principal,  so history repeated itself. we continued to participate in competitions of all kinds to represent the school, we won several events and I became very competitive so I continued to enter any type of competition that was held even without my mother and father asking me to do it.  I remember once there was a poetry contest in high school and the winner would go to the state contest. I was very excited because competing was already part of my life and still is. so I signed up without telling my parents. why didn't I tell them? Because When my mother heard about the contest she decided that my twin would be the one to participate in the contest. since I am a competitive person, I didn't care that my parents didn't tell me to participate in that contest and I signed in on my own decision.  the first thing that I needed was someone who would train me, although I constantly would compete in poetry contests I needed someone expert in that topic to have a chance to win. Unfortunately, nobody was available to train me; but I decided not to give up.

    Then I decided to recite a poem that I knew perfectly well. The name of the poetry is ESPERPENTO by Oscar Wilde. The poetry is about a love story between a deformed jester and a princess. I love that poetry but that's another story,...I participated in the contest won second place, and went to the state contest. I remember how excited I was, especially because I had achieved it using the knowledge learned through all those years of competitions.

     I constantly told myself: NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, which is my motto.

     When I arrived at the school where the state poetry contest was being held, I was surprised to see that there were contests in different disciplines such as drawing, chess, dance, oratory, etc., and poetry of course.  The poetry contest began, it consisted of two qualifying rounds so I had to recite two different poems and I decided that my second poem would be THE SEMINARIST WITH BLACK EYES; again a love story, it tells the story of a girl who fell in love with a seminarian who daily passed under her balcony on his way to the seminary. I am a romantic woman

When the qualifying rounds ended they announced that the winners of the first three places would be announced, but suddenly they announced that there was a tie; what was my surprise when they said my name and that of another boy; my heart stopped when they announced that there would be a tiebreaker, I didn't remember any other poetry. At that moment the other boy and I approached the jury to give the name of the poem we would recite and what was my surprise when the other boy said that he would recite a poem different from the previous two, I immediately thought that he would win because I wouldn't remember any other poetry and again I decided to take a risk and told the jury that I would recite ESPERPENTO's poetry again.

At the end of the tiebreaker round, they changed the stage for the awards. They announced that the name of the third-place winner who was a tiebreaker would be announced and they said my name. I jumped out of my seat laughing and raising my hands in the air, practically running up to the stage to receive my trophy, when I returned to my seat I thought nothing ventured nothing gained. I took a risk and won. I will never forget those moments in my entire life.