There is nothing left for me to do but wait.

The agony of not knowing is beginning to set in. I have a book in front of me, though it’s no use in distracting me from the anticipation. I sit biting my nails, thinking about nothing other than the results of the events I just competed in at the district UIL meet. I participate in journalism events for University Interscholastic League Academics — mostly news and feature writing.

In news writing, competitors are given a prompt about a fictional news event. The prompt is full of information and quotes. We then have 45 minutes to write a news article for a hypothetical high school newspaper. The article must have proper form and organization, an appropriate news introduction, correct punctuation and grammar, and overall it must be like a real news story. No opinion may be conveyed at all. It must be as if we are simply conveying the facts. Staying completely neutral by the judges standards has proved to be quite difficult for me in the past. In their opinion, simply stating that a subject is controversial conveys controversial ideas. Keeping all of this in check, while writing a story in 45 minutes or less, has proven to be very stressful. I think I have more adrenaline running through me at the end of the event than someone bungee jumping off of a bridge.

Only minutes after I endured the news writing competition, I switched gears to write a feature story. A feature story begins with setting the scene, painting a picture in the minds eye of the readers. You write, according to a prompt, about a person’s interesting experience or heroic deeds. So, you have a little more room for creativity. This event allows you one hour to complete the story. Again, I must be very careful of putting my own opinion or thoughts into a story. The reader alone must be responsible for opinion forming. I leave the competition room worn out and a little shaky. My mind has endured a lot in two hours.

So, now I sit awaiting the results of the competitions. I keep running my story through my mind, analyzing it for possible mistakes or organization errors. But there is absolutely nothing I can do now. Finally, a woman comes out announcing she has the news writing results. Once more, my heart begins to beat. As she calls out sixth, fifth, and fourth place my name isn’t called. I am filled with more anticipation, yet a nagging anxiety. Was my story good enough to place higher than fourth? I start trying to convince myself that it is okay if I didn’t place. I still did my best. Really though, I will be sorely disappointed if that is the case. (Nobody wants to admit that they are disappointed. They want to be cool and calm about it, but everyone is.)

In the midst of these thoughts, my name is called for second place. “Yes!” I think to myself. “I’m going to regionals!” Though I didn’t do as well in feature writing, I am OK with that. News writing has always been my favorite anyways.

Some people get their adrenaline fix by riding roller coasters, winning a game or getting a giant fish to bite their hands (it’s called noodling and people actually enjoy it).

But not me. I’d rather feel the stress of a time crunch at an academic event. I am such a nerd.