My Power of the Pen Stories

DISTRICT COMPETITION RESULTS!

UPDATE!
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GUYS!
I have some amazing news regarding the district competition I attended today, January 31 at South Range Middle School.

It was an amazing experience overall. My team is the best -- they are all so supportive of me and they are not afraid to show everyone we are a team that will fight together until the end. I love them all! (Lunch was so fun also -- food fights and phone stealing, plate frisbee and Harry Potter.)

PROMPTS:

(Note these are close to the original prompts, but I don't fully remember them so..)

ROUND 1: Write about a time you ignored some good advice.

ROUND 2: Your story takes place in a treehouse. Write about it.

ROUND 3: Write about a memory of your first time.

I thought those prompts were kind of challenging -- they make you think a little instead of an idea popping in your head at once. At least for me. :p

I was SO SO nervous at the beginning. I felt like I was going to puke everywhere!

But...

FINALLY!

The results of the competition.

The awards I was more nervous than ever. And I ended up...

WINNING BEST OF ROUND!

TWICE!!

It was truly phenomenal. I was shocked. I won the best of round award for two rounds, round 1 and 2. (I will definitely be posting these stories soon!) I won two of those Power of the Pen notebooks that best of round winners get, and 2 blue ribbons tucked inside.

Then...

I ALSO WON FIRST PLACE FOR SEVENTH GRADE.

OH. MY. GOSH.

I was about to cry, really. It was so nerve wracking, waiting as everyone else got called up.. And then there was one last trophy left. And it was mine! It's beautiful, and big. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with it. XD

MY SEVENTH GRADE TEAM:
I was the first place winner for the seventh grade, and my teammate ended up winning second place. I also won two best of round awards. Our team won second place seventh grade team.

Total, our seventh grade team gathered one first place trophy, one second place trophy, one second place TEAM trophy, two best of round Power of the Pen notebooks, two blue best of round ribbons, and six red second place team ribbons.

MY EIGHTH GRADE TEAM:
Unfortunately, the eighth grade did not go up on stage, and did not win any awards. I hope they will still make it to regionals, I believe in them!

Overall, I'm so glad I attended the event because it is something I will always remember. Regionals is February 28, and I'm ready! Good luck everyone and thank you for reading this! I'm very happy with my placement and I am NOT trying to brag -- I hope it doesn't come off like that! You should all be proud of your placements, and if you didn't place or aren't moving on to regionals, you are still a phenomenal writer! You made it this far. That's truly amazing. You're fearless! Just remember you TRIED YOUR BEST. That is all that matters! (I heard that J.K Rowling had trouble getting a publisher or whatever for her Harry Potter series because they all kept rejecting it. You need to work hard to reach your goals -- just like J.K! Harry Potter ended up being maybe the most popular series ever written. Never give up!) Until next time, bye guys!

-Olivia

(UPDATE: Today my coach told me that apparently I won first place and two best of round awards, but I also had a perfect score of 300 quality points -- the most you can earn in this competition, an honorable mention -- I'm not sure what the honorable mention was -- and a 1 rank in each round. It's pretty shocking news to me!)

(ANOTHER UPDATE!!: I didn't get 300 quality points!! I misheard the announcer, I just had a perfect score. She said perfect score so I thought she meant quality points, but apparently not?? I didn't have perfect quality points! They were all in the superior category, but not perfect, gosh no! Sorry, just had to fix that!!)