After our first break from the first term in high school,our school planned to organize an inter-house competition.I was in SS3(twelfth grade in America and Year 6 in British). After the break, the first thing the school management did was to hand over the power of leadership to our juniors in SS2 so that we could prepare for our certificate examinations.
The inter-house sports competition is usually done in my school every two years. It was done before when I was in SS1 and now to be done in my SS3. The whole school became very busy. Vehicles were all thronging in and out of our school bringing with it a lot of things needed to make the day colorful such as the canopies, chairs,ice cream stands and the others.
Since this was an inter-house competition, we had different houses, the green house,red,blue,yellow and the orange house. I was in the green house. There were a lot of sports for the different houses to participate in and gain points such as football, basketball, volleyball,races, swimming,jumps and the others. My experiences in the village helped me a lot. When I used to visit my village, I was exposed to flowing rivers where I learned how to swim. So, I was the best in the swimming competition having 5 points out of 5.
My house was flooded with girls. We didn't even have a full squad for football, not to speak of substitutes. We lost the football points as we emerged last, we were the first team to be knocked out in football, basketball and volleyball. We lost games that needed a boys ' squad. But this didn't happen in the female squad as we had many eligible girls who represented us very well in those sports boys failed.
Games like football and those that required stages to obtain the winners were played before the D-day when dignitaries were invited. The track events such as races and hurdles were specifically reserved for this D-day. Calculating from the sports we played, we were in fourth position so we had to try our best in track events to add up points to at least push up to third position,this was our goal. We prayed for this position. Other houses mocked us and said we would take last position.
Time ran like it had been chased. The D-day was just the next day. During our house training,our house master already pleaded with me to prepare very well. He said this because I was the only boy in the house who could run very fast. Others can run but not as fast to outrun other participants and in this condition all we needed was to win all the races in order to meet our goal.
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It was time, the event started after all the dignitaries arrived. All the participants in races appeared in their dresses showing their house colors. I represented my house in the 100m,200m and 400m and emerged 1st,1st and 3rd respectively. I was exhausted but I had no choice because my house master said it was better I run and take third than for someone else to run and take last. I did the finish up of our relay race, though my partner who handed over the baton to me arrived last,I still tried to emerge 3rd position. We were happy when the results were announced and the green house emerged 2nd overall. We were more happy than the house with 1st position.
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This was not my "IT" moment. A week after this competition, we had the awards giving session in our auditorium. The whole auditorium was filled with students from all classes. It was as if the hall was meant for Grammy or Ballon D'or award. This was the beginning of my IT moment. As our proprietress started calling out the participants to get their awards. She called me for the 1st in swimming and everyone cheered. She called me again for 1st in the 100m and everyone cheered again,this time louder. She called me again for 1st in the 200m and everyone cheered,this time louder than the former. She called me again for 3rd in the 400m and everyone stood up for me, clapping and cheering me very loudly. My proprietress said,"That's not all, he is the third finisher in the relay race" and the whole hall was as if it would collapse.
I couldn't carry all the awards as the house master ran to the stage and helped me carry some. I felt so satisfied and fulfilled. This was my IT moment I can never forget.
