Microsoft Office National Champion by Daniel

Microsoft Office National Champion by Daniel - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

Knocked out of first place, fighting for the perfect score, fastest time. With the difference of a few points, the scores lock in Friday night and I wait anxiously over the weekend for the results to publish. Monday morning, I wake up to the news, I placed first in Washington state for Microsoft Excel. My flight for the Orlando, Florida, National competition was booked–I made it.

It’s easy to look at the achievement with this preconceived notion that success just comes naturally to the intelligent kids. The truth is, stories like these are different. They are not spontaneous or easy, but marked with lots of hardships, discipline, and determination.

Coming into high school, I became fascinated with the idea of becoming a Certified Public Accountant. Deciding to plan ahead for my journey at University of Washington, I committed to learning and certifying in many programs, including: Excel Expert, Word Expert, and PowerPoint. Over the years I mastered each program, and became an expert associate. As I went through these programs, I heard inspiring stories of students who went to competitions, moving on to represent their states in national competitions with huge prizes. I often thought to myself, “I’m good at this, but I will never be gifted on a level like those students, even if I give it my all.”

I avoided competitions, in part because of my busy schedule. Naturally, I wouldn’t want to spend my valuable time on a competition, just to immediately lose to professionals. Nonetheless, my teacher continually encouraged me, always inviting me to compete. One day I decided to try it; I started preparing and testing, but my score was nowhere near the perfect 100%, much less the mind-boggling speed that was necessary. So, I began investing many hours in study, sacrificing my free time. This paid off as I eventually reached my perfect-score goal, but my time was horrendous. I was happy with how far I had come, but was ready to quit. However, somewhere in this process, my teacher helped instill in me a mentality to never-quit. One that would make me so determined, I would take this to the end.

I came to the computer lab every day, pouring in many hours. I sacrificed a lot, with no guarantee that I would succeed. Some days I’d test for as long as four hours straight. Slowly but surely my time went down. I was getting faster and faster, with perfect accuracy. Every time I reached a new breakthrough, I would think that I’ve hit my limit. I held first place and fended off all nearby opponents, so I became comfortable and stagnant in my discipline. Eventually, I lost my spot in the end-game of the competition. I had to pick up speed, and fast! I poured in even more time than I have before, going all out to my limits, and still not fast enough, not good enough.

I prayed for a humble heart. Through this whole journey I asked God for guidance, but moved by His word in the scriptures, I prayed “Father not my will, but Your will be done in my life. At the end of the day, my life is Yours, I live for You. So this should not matter as much to me. I will give it my all, but help me to humbly and joyfully accept the results. Excel is not the point of my life, You are.”

The competition dragged on to the final hours. After what felt like a good test cycle, I submitted my time sitting at 3 minutes, and 6 seconds. In the end, I came out on top, 1st place had earned me a spot in nationals. Beyond what I’ve been able to achieve, I thank God for this journey, because its greatest impact was changing my heart–making it more like Christ’s.