Monday, August 13, 2007

Austin and Boston and MIT, oh my!

So something funny happened today - not a ha-ha funny, more of a "that's interesting" funny. I won't get into the details, but basically, a few hours ago I found out that I won this writing contest, a contest I had no idea I could possibly win. Obviously, I'm thrilled.

Well, sort of.

The reason I'm not completely thrilled is that the grand prize includes a trip to Austin, Texas, for a celebration party.

Normally, this would not be an issue. Except the party is being thrown on Wednesday, September 5 - the first day of classes at MIT. A day I would never miss.

So I did what any good MIT engineer-in-training would do, and I turned the trip down. I understand they'll give it to the second place winner instead, who hopefully will be able to appreciate it more than I can. I'm not that upset, I guess. I mean, I still won, which feels fantastic, even if I won't get the prize and no one besides my family will know. And giving up the trip doesn't seem like such a sacrifice either, because how can you sacrifice something you never really had to begin with? I'm not sure if that makes sense, but hopefully you know what I mean.

All the same, it is a little depressing. Emotion defies logic, sometimes. That's sort of the definition of emotion, isn't it?

Still...in a few days I don't think I'm really going to care about that trip to Austin anyway. The reason I know this is that in precisely six days I'm going to be at MIT...and hopefully I won't want to leave anyway.

Assuming I survive, that is. :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I think you had your priorities straight, but congratulations on winning. What did you write, though? A short story?

Paul said...

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I would probably call it a short story, though it was slightly more specific than that. Basically, entrants were given a basic "concept" for a character and asked to write his backstory in 1000 words or less. It was a fun exercise.

Anonymous said...

Dude, I tried leaving a comment a couple of days ago and IT WOULD NOT WORK. It killed my soul.

Anyway, congrats, you won! Who cares about the party. Texas... isn't that great ;)