Wednesday, October 20, 2010

My Determination and I

Last week on Friday, October 15, 2010, I accidentally came across a question on Facebook. A 50/50 question that caught my attention. It's a question where you could claim for the prize, but it was limited to the first 3 people only and I was like 30 minutes behind. So it's a 50/50 question. The prize was the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Just in case you're wondering, the question was from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. They interact with Facebookers by posting questions, safety tips, health tips, to name a few. And I always participated in especially, the question-answer ones. The difference is they didn't give out prizes before, but they did last week.

Honestly, I never knew the answers right away after I finished reading the questions, but I googled and posted my answers. They didn't restrain you to do so anyway. Their idea is to get people to acknowledge their good activities mainly done in Cambodia. So I tried my luck even though I knew I was late for 30 minutes already. I was glad I was my old self that day. A person who would try it even though everybody said you couldn't. A determined girl. That was me! My new self is a hopeless hope because I have to ask others' opinion first before moving on to doing whatever it is. And it sucks. Enough said for the negative points here. This post shall be happy, excited, surprised, and honorable.

And this is the question they asked:

What year was the canal at the Barai Occidental in Siem Reap inaugurated? It was reconstructed with American aid to support Cambodian irrigation systems and inaugurated by Prince Norodom Sihanouk and U.S. Ambassador William Trimble.

I have to admit that this one wasn't easy to find as the previous ones they'd asked, but since I'd started it I'd to finish it, too. I read and spotted the key word, William Trimble. I'd check his working periods in Cambodia so that I could narrow down my search. After browsing here and there for awhile, I found the answer. I sent it right away as I'd instructed to. After a few minutes later, they replied back.

CONGRATULATIONS! This was the first word I read. I was on cloud nine. I thought I was late already, but no I wasn't. They said my answer's correct and asked for my contacts and they'd send it on Monday, October 18, 2010.

On Monday I waited from morning until... Around 2:05pm I received my dictionary. A man from the mail express company delivered it. I signed my name and rushed back inside to open the package. I found a letter of appreciation and my dictionary. I was and am still glad I did try it. Even though it's not something big, but sometimes even a small hug can put a smile on your face throughout the whole day. I don't care what other people think, I only know that I've done what I did in the past. A strong determined me! I hate how people around me tend to always put me down or object to whatever I want to do or achieve. At least I could prove to them that I'm not that worthless even though I know they'd think otherwise still.

 I'm not going to upload the letter of appreciation here for some reason. But you can have a glimpse of my dictionary.  

p.s. The answer to the question is 1960.

2 comments:

Craig said...

One more contest for you to enter, this time a photo contest:
http://cambodia.usembassy.gov/photo_contest_2011.html
From, Your friends at the US Embassy.

Gizelle said...

You never fail to surprise me and this one is pretty big. I still can't believe that someone from the embassy would read this. Anyway, thank you for the link. I will definitely join. :)