Writing Competition

I opened our family's Inbox and felt a surge of excitement as my eyes found the subject line reading, Rodney Writes Award Presentation.
Did I dare think it? Had I won? I read the words of the e-mail, convincing myself that perhaps I had got a placing in this district-wide competition. Sadly, it was not to be.
At the end of the message were the words, and I quote, For you information, the winners have been notified. Oh. Thanks. Needless to say, I have decided against attending.
The thing you should know is that I won this competition last year, first place in the Young Writers' category. This title also came with a five hundred dollar cheque.
I'm not that disappointed, to be honest. I mean, yeah, it would have been nice to win, but what's happened has contradicted some fundamental principles of mine.
I wrote the first story, Surprises around each corner and over every Wave, in about a half-hour. Seriously, I just sat down at the computer after hearing about the competition and wrote it. Then I forgot about it and finally submitted it in on the last day before the deadline of the competition.
But with the second story I spent time on; planning it, writing and re-writing it.
I suppose that the theme was more forced than the first theme.
Maybe I won on a fluke, and it is true that there weren't that many entrants the first time round.
Oh well, that's beside the point. What happened is that a careless attitude triumphed over time and effort. It's very interesting.
I wasn't particularly proud of my first piece, it was tacky and obvious and had way too many metaphors. I definitely think my second story was better put together, and it must have been written better- I was a whole year older and had surely developed more skill.
It is not encouraging to think that I have, perchance, become worse over time.
I have concluded that I will not take full-credit for not getting a place in this competition, and that they probably just didn't want to let the same person win two years in a row. (That's what I have been consoling myself with at least.)
Oh well. I believe there is no peak of skill when it comes to expressing yourself, and so I will just have to keep practicing and think positively.

Over & out.