Good day, Hive community! It’s your @rufajane here, back with another blog. For this one, I’ll be sharing my experience during our **“balak”** (a type of poetry, particularly prominent in Cebuano and other Visayan languages) competition.
**Ai-generated**
September 6, 2025, was the start of our intramurals with the theme ***“Igniting Spirit: Challenge, Compete, Conquer.”*** We all know that when it comes to intramurals, schools get very busy training students for the different sports and activities.
While I was occupied with some schoolwork, a teacher called me to the faculty office. When I got there, he told me that he would be choosing me for the Balak (poem) competition because he knew I was a poet. I know I should have been excited because this is something I really love but honestly, I wasn’t that happy at first. Why? Because he only informed me about the audition at 12:40 PM, and the audition was at 1:00 PM. Basically, I only had a few minutes to prepare. I still had to write a poem and memorize it, so the pressure was really on.
But still, I took the risk. I hurriedly constructed my poem and went to audition. What made it even more nerve-wracking was that out of all the Grade 12 students auditioning, only one would be chosen to represent our level during the intramurals. Whoever gave the best performance would be picked, and the rest eliminated.
To my surprise, I was chosen to represent Grade 12. I was really happy, yet at the same time pressured, because I carried our batch’s honor. Questions started filling my head: “What if I don’t make it to the top 3? What if my best isn’t good enough?” But despite my doubts, I had my family and friends constantly encouraging me. They reminded me not to pressure myself too much because, regardless of the outcome, my best would always matter.
Since the news came to me so suddenly, I only had two days to practice. To make things worse, I even lost my voice because it happened at the same time my asthma returned. Still, during the contest, I managed to stay calm. A few of my classmates cheered for me as I walked in front of the judges. And since I’m used to public speaking, I didn’t feel nervous at all (not even a bit). It was as if the crowd didn’t matter.
Everything went well. I didn’t experience a mental block, but what really upset me was the sound system and background music. It took a while before it played, and when it finally did, the operators had muted the intro. Then, when they unmuted it, the sound was so low that the audience could barely hear it. I needed the background music for my spoken poetry, so that incident was a huge disappointment. Still, I just continued reciting my poem even if the music was messed up.
After my performance, I honestly thought I wouldn’t win anymore because the background music carried a big weight in the scoring criteria. But when I was called as the 3rd placer during the awarding, I was so grateful. The other contestants could have done better than me, so I didn’t take it for granted. Many teachers even approached me, saying, ***“If only the sound system hadn’t malfunctioned during your performance, you probably would have won because your piece was really good.”***
But honestly, I didn’t mind at all. Whether I lost or won, the experience itself was already rewarding for me.
That’s all for this blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it! Feel free to share your own experiences in the comment section.
