A Chance In The Stars

Competition Day

The moment I finished writing the speech I hand my notepad to Nathen. "Is it good enough?"

I wait and watch as his eyes scan the paper line by line. "Looks fine to me." He replies handing it back and watching as a tall, thin man enters the stage. I start to bite my fingernails and my breathing increases, Nathen notices and grabs hold of my hand, "Lily calm down if worst comes to worst then just make it up on the spot," I look at him to see if he is being serious, "What? Really Nathen? It's bad enough I left it to the last minute, I'm not just going to make it up on the spot!" He knows I'm right because he turns his focus back on the looming stage.

This is such a big deal for me, an Australia wide photography competition that, if I actually win, can send me to Paris on an educational journey to becoming a worldwide photographer. OK, that was a bit much, but I'm just so nervous! I've seen some of the competition and I'm really not sure if I have any chance at all.

Nathen grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze, I'm so glad I have such a good friend like Nathen, he's always there for me. An interesting story really, we met in year 7 on the bus and ever since we just declared best friends, OK so not that interesting.

"Lily, he's about to announce, are you with us?" Nathen says waving his hand in front of my face multiple times, "Yeah I'm here, I'm just so nervous!" At that very moment, Mum grabs my other hand and leans in to give me a kiss on both cheeks, "You're going to be a fabulous photographer, either way, Lily, don't you worry darling," I sigh, that was the 'your most probably not going to win but I going to try to make you feel better anyways' talk.

We all watch as he opens an envelope, I had missed the whole speech, being too busy worrying. "This year's winner of Australia Photography Competition and the lucky winner of a two week trip to Paris is . . . " there is a long pause and he stares at the piece of paper until finally announcing the winner, "The winner is Lily Brown with her piece titled June Haven, can we get our winner up here?"

Everyone is staring at me and my Mum is clapping loudly in my ear, Nathen is shaking me yelling "Yes Lil!" But all I can make out is a group of unhappy contestants staring in my direction, beady-eyed. I slowly made my way to the stage, my breathing is increasing and I feel as though the walls are closing in on me, as I place myself in front of the microphone everyone suddenly goes quiet and I'm left utterly speechless.

"Uh, um . . . Thank you for this um, award and I - I, um . . . " I look over to Nathen and Mum, Nathen is biting his fingernails and miming 'wrap it up!' and Mum is giving me two thumbs up. "I would just like to stay I uh I loved all of the photos and I think everyone here is a winner," The kids in the front row frown as I start to feel dizzy, I know what this is. I'm having a panic attack. No, no not now! "Uh so um thanks, guys." I walk off stage and run through the fire exit door finally catching a breath of fresh air.

So here I am, having a panic attack about making a speech, but now, in less than two days I am going to be getting on a plane to France. This is crazy. I don't even know what to think but all I know is this is going to be one heck of a journey.