"Winning is everything, huh? Nah winning is the only thing" -Snoop Doog.
"And the winner of this year is... Mohamed Attia" -The man in the Black suit said.
About a year ago I was reading the news-paper; the advertisements section to be exact. I usually read the advertisements which are written in English first, I don't know why, I just love English language. What really captured my attention was the word "Competition" and in less than a second after reading the whole advertisement I knew I had to participate and win.
The next day I went to E.S.L. English language international training center\Khartoum-Sudan, where the English language competition took place. That girl was attractively speaking to me with this wonderful British Accent; she was telling me about the competition and what's required from me. She gave me an application and I started filling it; when I completed filling my personal information and academic level information -I was a junior student in college at that time- I moved to the competition categories, there were four categories: the debate, drama, poetry, and the spelling bee. little did I know; I was supposed to choose only one category to compete in! However I chose the debate; if you personally know me you will know exactly why I chose the debate!
The first and second levels of the competition were quite easy for me; we had to debate on one subject on each level, the first one was about uniforms of schools and universities in Sudan and whether it's a must or not to have a uniform, I was against having it as a must and I proved my point and won and went to the next level. The subject was little bit different this time, it was: whether it is right or wrong to discuss political issues as classroom topics and each one of the two competitors -including me off course- should take a side, Against or With. I was against discussing political issues as classroom topics and I won; again. Please keep in mind that we were not debating according to global perspectives, our opinions and point of views were supposed to be based on Sudan's community and the reality we are living in.
Here I am on the finals, competing for the final price and the prestigious title. The subject they chose for us to debate on was a tough one: "Does Sudanese schools help students reach their dreams or not?" and guess what; I did not believe that Sudanese schools helps students reach their dreams. Obviously because most of the Sudanese schools policies really discourages the students and takes away their dreams slowly through their corrupted and stupid teaching techniques and ignorant personality-lacking and knowledge-lacking teachers and inappropriate curriculum materials. You will agree with me if you are aware of the Sudanese educational system. And that's how I won; by demonstrating those reasons to my competitor and the judges and the audience. By the way did I tell you that my father was sitting on the first line among the audience supporting me? His presence really helped and motivated me.
The judges were really impressed about this brilliant speaker who was able to grab all the audience attention smoothly and also was able to control him self under all the pressure while speaking through the mic on stage. Little did they know; he is a professional on-stage entertainment performer\host. Not surprisingly, that person's last name was Attia!
Through this wonderful experience I've gained a lot, academically, socially and financially. My English language got improved a little bit and my accent got better. I met new people and made new friendships with some of the competitors. I also earned a chance to brag a little bit and satisfy my ego as I told my English teacher at college about this experiences, and guess what? He asked me to go and stand in front of the class and tell all my fellow students about my experience and this competition that I won, and that was to show that participating on activities outside of the college range is really helpful.
