How I Lost 35,000 And Smiled

I can think of two reasons why you clicked on this:

• You are looking for tea. Not chai. You really want to know what I did after I lost it because honestly when gossip hits, nobody really cares how it happened. People usually want to know the aftermath….oh, just me, then? Okay, pretty little liar. I believe you. tsk!
• Kindly let me know in the comments because I can’t think of anything else.

I’m definitely going to dive into the backstory first and lay down all the events that caused me to lose this big an amount. So, if you want to skip to the end, you can. But since I told you to do so, it doesn’t mean there is a summary in the end. It’s just better to go with the flow.

Let’s begin.

I enrolled in a creative writing course on Internshala to learn how to write better, edit and publish. The course was super. I learnt so much that I actually aced the final test after one revision and zero cheating. It was an online test but I have a conscience so that’s that.

There were two features that stood out and I, being human, took advantage of both. Firstly, doing this course enables the students to submit a story and stand a chance to win a cash prize. Secondly, whoever does this course with my referral code, gets a discount. The Internshala team is pretty amazing. I think whoever set this up deserves all the prizes or double.  Not only did they decide to award the first prize winner 35K, but the second prize winner would get half or close to this while the third prize winner got a double-digit amount too. Imagine if we all had bosses like the guy who gave this idea.

Now, clearly, if you paid attention while reading the paragraph above you know how I lost 35K. I didn’t win. Not only that, but I also didn’t win any of the three prizes. It’s not that my story sucked and I`m not saying this because I wrote it. My mom really liked it too. I was really disappointed to know I lost a chance to win a cash prize. Who doesn’t like money when it’s a double-figure?

The reason I smiled was that I ended up in the top ten stories that were picked and had a good enough chance of winning if it weren’t for this and that. the review was really helpful and I could see that my story needed to be improved. Mom wasn’t wrong for liking the story but as a writer, now I know where I could and can do better.

I could whine and cry that the perks of doing this course were never really enjoyed. But, I have always believed in celebrating little things. I don’t know when I started doing this and I encourage you to do it too. Pat yourself on the shoulder, buy that yummy pastry and celebrate achievements. Big or small, at the end of the day, it is still an achievement. Don’t confuse it with living in a bubble of your own. That’s a whole other drama which I am not a fan of.

It’s possible there were 13 story submissions. Out of which, 3 won and 10 qualified in the top 10 (“in no particular order” according to their e-mail). I didn’t choose to ignore that possibility, but what good would it do obsessing over it?

Celebrate the little things because when you run a string through, threading them all together, you’ll be astonished at how far you’ve come. 

Note: If you are interested in creative writing (author or not) check out this training. It covered very essential topics and I saw an improvement in my writing too.

Link to the course: Creative Writing Training Program
Discount coupon code: ISRP1589103

*This is not a promotional post/advertisement for Internshala in any way*