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Flower Arranging – Just Do It and Forget It
Normally speaking, the winning of prizes brings moments of joy; and coming in first is always good news to take home and share.
But, one of the prizes I won whilst at school was very much different. I won first prize in my school's annual flower arranging contest. I was neither happy nor pleased. In fact, I was deeply ashamed.
To begin with, I had only gone in for my school's annual flower arranging contest because it was something one “did”. Not to have done it wouldn't have been right. It was a tradition. “Just do it and forget it” were the words of my father. And, so I just did it.
Very reluctantly, I turned up at school with my flower arrangement. My flower arrangement, by-the-way, consisted of a bunch of hurriedly picked flowers which I had just as hurriedly stuffed into one of my running shoes. That was all! And, arriving at the school hall where the competition was, I got a surprise. All the other entries were brilliant. All results of great effort. Hours of snipping and cutting and the difficult deciding of which flowers went best with each other. In other words, all worksof great art. My flower arrangement was not up to scratch. But, I had entered.
And then, there I was back in my class enjoying my favourite subject. It was just around 3, and with only one more hour to go before going home, I had completely forgotten the flower arranging competition. Then, all of a sudden, the classroom door opened and in walked the headmaster's assistant. My name was called out. Three minutes later, I walked into the hall where the flower arranging competition was and onto the stage. Then everyone started to clap. Who for? They were clapping for me! I had been given first prize.
The headmaster gave a short speech. How great I was, how original I was, how diligent I was, And, how people like me gave the school a good name, and, so on and so forth.
I should have been pleased, but I wasn't. I had seen all the efforts my schoolmates had done. I felt like an intruder. But, there was nothing I could do. I accepted the prize with great grace. However, in my very short speech, I made it clear that everyone else had done much better than me. Then, everyone clapped once again. I was a very good sport. But, there again, there is only one winner in each competition. I had done something unusual. Character? Maybe! And, I've been doing everything differently in a very different way ever since. Just do it and forget it, but do it how you want – a lesson in life!
Flower Arranging – Just do it and forget it.
Vocabulary
by-the-way - übrigens
diligent – hard working (fleißig)
gone in for … teil genommen
intruder – Eindringlinge
neither nor – weder noch
snipping – schnipsen
so on and so forth - so weiter und so fort
turned up - arrived
(not) up to scratch – not up to standard
I accepted the prize with great grace, Ich nahm den Preis mit großer Gnade entgegen.
