It was a normal rather dreary day on Cape Cod in Massachusetts as I drove up the block dreading going to my first class. This class I dreaded was a class titled “World Language and Culture” and it was necessary for me to take in order to graduate in the spring. I pulled up to the school and breathed in a breath of the salty air and stepped into school walking straight up the stairs and into the class just as the bell rang. I sat down next to my friends Paul and Brian who informed me that the teacher was late, as usual. I sighed and turned to them and said “just a few more months until we graduate, not too much longer.”

About five minutes later the teacher entered the room more excited and animated than normal. She walked in an announced that we would be taking a different approach to learning about other cultures by joining an essay contest set in India. I was instantly intrigued but also confused as I turned to Brian and said “Essay contest in India? How did she even find this”. I have always been somewhat interested in entering an essay contest just to see how well I would do but an international one seemed competitive and stressful. My instructor explained that there was no prize for winning and no second or third place, only first. The topic was “Women’s Rights and Representation in Government”.

Paul and Brian were not as eager as I was so they spent their three days to write the paper playing games on their laptops and texting discreetly under the desk. For some reason I was more excited to take part in an this international essay contest than I was for anything else I had done this year. Once the paper supporting women’s rights and representation was complete, it was time to wait for the results.

I was eager to know the results for the first two weeks after completing the paper, but after they passed I realized that I probably just did not win. Then one day I walked into class and my teacher ran over to me with a large grin on her face and she announced that I had won the essay contest and the holders of the competition wished to meet me over Skype. Not only was I shocked that my essay was considered, but they praised my ability to express my own opinion and feelings in a way they claimed was not evident in the other papers. This was by far my greatest writing achievement yet.

Winning an essay contest set in another country helped prove to me that not only had my writing abilities improved throughout the years, but that writing was a way for me to be able to express my ideas and share them with people throughout the world and communicate with those who agree with me.