A Victory to Remember by Tori

A Victory to Remember by Tori - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Of all my achievements, I am most proud of placing first in the Plateau League Knowledge Bowl tournament. I have never shown a particular aptitude for athletics or music, but winning this competition reminded me that I still had a special talent. This activity meant that I had a place where I could belong even though my best friend wasn’t around anymore. In fact, it had been a hard year without my best friend, Ellie, and there were a lot of moments where I wondered if I could ever stop feeling alone and out of place at my school.
Another aspect that makes this specific accomplishment stand out to me is that I was chosen to hold a leadership position during the contest. While I served in this position I felt respected by my subordinates. That was a distinctive change from my previous experiences. Before this occasion, it always seemed that I was a person that people walked all over. Having my skills and opinions validated this way was confidence inspiring. Not only did this event affirm to me that I was a capable leader, it demonstrated that when one puts in considerable effort it will reap rewarding results. Practicing at quizzing had paid off. I watched Jeopardy five nights of the week for at least two months, I took geography tests, and I read as many trivia books as I could get my hands on.
While I was quite well prepared to apply my knowledge, I had not entirely addressed all the components of competing. I still had trouble trusting other people to support me. By the end of it all, I realized that there was nothing to fear. I could rely on other people and not be let down. When I did not know the answer, my teammates knew it or could come up with a guess for me to announce. We were able to figure out how to utilize every team member. I was an expert for history questions, we had a science expert, a person in charge of answering math questions, and someone who specialized in literature. In general, winning this meet was a triumph that has stood out to me because I learned so much from this episode in my life. We had fun and we won.