My Audition

Everyday, we experience moments. These moments may be big or small, nevertheless

they affect us and shape us as an individual in its own ways. These may be the most trivial
experiences—like how we learned to lessen expectations in order to avoid the possibility of
getting hurt emotionally because of an unfortunate turn of events. We may not be conscious
of it but we pick up certain morals in these experiences that we hold onto as we continue our
journey.

I, as a girl who has lived and partook her journey for 16 years, have gone through
experiences of all shapes and sizes. These have affected me either negatively, positively or
both. An experience that came into my mind is the day that I auditioned for a slot to qualify
to represent the school in a journalism competition, specifically in the cartooning area. I
know in myself that art is a talent of mine. It is something that I noticed I am genuinely good
at. In an instant, it has become a passion of mine. Auditioning for this slot took guts. After
all, I was auditioning for something wherein I had to compete with the school’s name
depending on me. This would be such a huge honor and I was positive that I was worthy of it.
My love for creating art has inspired me to gather up all of my courage in order to step into
the audition room.

As the results were released and posted, I can still remember how my heart was
beating at such an incredible rate. My hands were shaking as I hesitatingly clicked the
notification button. Butterflies were swarming in my tummy as the group page loaded.
Unfortunately, my name was absent in the post. I was held speechless at that very moment. I
could almost feel my heart shatter into pieces. At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I worked
hard on my artwork but, in the end, it didn’t pay off. It was devastating. That experience had
destroyed my self-esteem. Art was one of the things that I can proudly say I’m good at, but at
that moment it seemed as if I was wrong. It seemed as if the only thing that I am admittedly
good at turned out to be nothing special. I felt as if I were a failure.

But as time passed my mind cleared. Yes, this has indeed made me feel inferior. It
had made me feel useless. Though, I have noticed that I have become more meticulous
whenever I drew or created art. I have been paying more attention to the details of my
illustrations and the message that they convey more than I did before that incident. I have
become stronger. Every negative comment that was pointed out about my creations has been
converted into fuel for my motivation—my motivation to strive for excellence. I have learned
how to take the positive out of the negative, even if it were as if searching for a needle of
optimism in a haystack of pessimism.

For sixteen years, I have gone through a lot. To name a few: I have once felt such
extreme infatuation over a guy in elementary, I have met inspiring teachers who have played
a huge role in motivating me to take my studies seriously, I have lost some of the important
people in my life, I have failed an exam, I have perfected an exam, I have met the most
boisterous yet loving people who have become my friends and I have been rejected in a
certain cartoonist audition. I have managed to state an event in my life that took no longer
than two days to happen but has managed to leave lessons that I will be taking with me as I
grow older.

It’s beautiful how these experiences take only minutes of your time but have the
power to affect you so greatly that it leaves a mark that would last a lifetime. These
experiences all come with life lessons but it’s your choice whether you would choose to take
it or leave it. This decision is what molds you to be the person that you are now.

My experiences serve as evidence of me being defined as a person. These are the

reasons why I have become the person I am now. These are what made me Kat.

HERNANDEZ, Katreen Kyle Manzanero