Scrabble: The Game Changer

Today, I woke up with good smile and calm heart. Until, I heard my father's voice outside. In our home, when my father was in the house in the morning it means something is going on. It perhaps about his mood or his work. I observed his actions this morning and the reason why he didn't go to his work is because of... Ugh! I can't share it now.

This is the last day of the month of January and perhaps many of you are reflecting on what January has bring. It's either personal or financial. I would love to share you about my Scrabble journey when I was in senior high-school.

There are various board games we can play including chess, battleship, damath, monopoly and scrabble. Since I am not an athletic person, most of the time I play board games or mind games with my friends. Scrabble is a board games which you need to formulate words and place it to the words existed in the board. There are numbers in the letters that helps you gain points over your opponent.

Since scrabble is like a crosswords, you can place it and adds words to the ending and middel of the letter as long as the word is accepted. There are numerous techniques you can use to win, but sometimes learning those techniques can be reverse and may your opponents/s win over you.

Senior high game

During my senior high days, I was very active student. It was innate. I am a type ot student that focuses on academics rather than sports. Not to brag, but in God's grace I was top notcher in school. I still remember when for the very first time I saw my name was on top in Dean's lister. Can you imagine out of 800+ students in your grade level, you came out as on top? All I can say is "thank and praise God".

My teacher asked me to join scrabble and compete to other schools. Well, at first I hesitate because I didn't play scrabble much before and thus competing. She encouraged me and pursued me everyday. I even hide whenever I saw her in the hallway because as always she will mentioned about scrabble. Later on, I accepted her offfer because I felt guilty to my ma'am.

There are 25 days left before the competition. It means I'm running out of time. I read several English novels before so I have a little amount of English words on my mind. One of the greatest struggle is that, I have to memorize thousands of words. Dear me! Whenever I saw the lists of accepted words for scrabble, I totally regret it. But no, this is a good opportunity for breakthrough.

I still remember clearly that wherever I look at, I saw words floating in the air. Words in the sky, words on top of someone's head, words in the roads and words in the foods. That's how memorizing thousands of words in 15 days was like. Wherever I go, I have that lists of words in my hands. In bus, tricycle, mall, cr, dining table, garden, and just wherever it is.

Competition Day

During competition, I was really nervous. My team mates are tapping my back and saying "You can do it, Denn!". Of course it calms me, but still my heart won't stop beating fast. When I received my competition number and was placed to our respective room. Goodness! I saw a lot of students. Some are wearing glasses, and you know from their looks that they are smart people. Scare me like to the highest!

When my number was called, it's my time to enter the game. When I sat down in the chair, the nervousness I felt was becoming heavy in my chest. Thus the cold temperature inside adds more. I greet hello to my opponents and they seem nice. When the dice was rolled that determined who will move first, I was place third.

At first, the game was good. It went well and we're having good words. I'm earning quite a high points to each words I placed. I still had the copy of my first game which I gained 178 points and placed first. The highest point I got was the word "Zenith" which I had placed in triple word.

Moving forward, I am winning in each game. I had 6 games and I placed first. But friend, the last three games I played was I almost rank 4. Just thankful for the words I picked in the jar. Whoo! Then when the finals was finally happening. I didn't expected that there will problem occured.

When the game was finally meeting its end, everyone has their final pieces and I'm leading the ranking. When I placed my final word, several seconds ago my opponent's coach stood up and says "You're word is invalid!". Then I was like what he's talking about? Yes, it turned out that my final word is invalid through words checker, but the problem is that the coach shouldn't said that to us. Why? Because the rule is that only my opponent has the power to question my word if its valid or not. Then if its proven, then I will loose my turn. But in our case, the coach was the one who spoke about not my opponent. It became a hot topic to other coaches because everyone should follow the rules. In the end, I lost my ranking and placed 2nd. Other coaches requested to have rematch due to that, but we say it's okay. It's my mistake afterall.

Several days after the game, I finally realized why I didn't get the gold medal. During that time, God is allowing me to experience to lose because I'm becoming selfish in other ways. My heart is turning to greedy one, always wanted to win and hate to lose. My church leader says that...

"If it's not destined to win, you will lose - so be it".

Appreciation

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Images are credited to Unsplash
Lead image made in Canva
Blog #5
1/31/2022