My track record at winning has never been good on paper. I can count with my ten fingers the number of times I've been in first place. One was a singing contest in elementary school (I cringe at the memory of the song of choice), another was a card-making contest in high school (I still have the Christmas Tree-shaped trophy in my room), and a couple of English writing categories in the Regional Schools Press Conference right before college (damn, why did I not write about Rizal in Nationals!!!). Now I'm worse with raffle draws. I remember a time when the company I worked for gave out 100 Starbucks GCs and I did not win a thing! I can't even luck out on a stupid cup of coffee! Now things haven't been really good at work lately, so for the past month, I've concentrated what's left of my will power to the arts (photography class), sports (badminton) and eating. And then the streak started. Two weeks ago, I landed in 4th place in our graduation photo contest. The class size was about 40 people so I was thrilled when I nabbed a top 5 spot, not to mention that I was so thankful that at least I got a medal for waking up at 4am to go to Taal to take my winning photo (which I didn't know was gonna win at the time, unless I am clairvoyant you dummy!). Lucky? Not quite yet...Last week, I became somebody's last-minute replacement to an inter-industry badminton tournament participated in by Shell (wohooo!), Petron, Chevron and Total. Now I'm not a very athletic person, but badminton is one sport I would like to think I'm decent at. At the end of the gruelling whole-day tournament, me and my partner emerged as champions in our class! I was like, "Whoa!!! I've actually got a medal as testament to my "athletic" prowess nyahahaha!". Two medals in two weeks, now that's enough to keep a smile pasted on my face during business planning season. The latest (I dare not say "last") of my streaks came last night during Shell's One Finance masquerade ball. Now this was one event where I really had to work for my Renaissance Hotel buffet dinner. I co-hosted the event, sang with the band and performed a dance number with my boss and teammates. Needless to say, I was running out of energy as the night was coming to a close. Now there was a raffle, the grand prize being an ultra-slim flatscreen TV and dvd player - tasty lah! And guess who won...ME!!!?!?! I'm not really sure why all this is happening, I haven't even been extra good boy lately. Well, if there's one thing I know that applies to me, it's that it always pours when it rains in Paul's world. I've half the mind to take my friend Rico's advise and bet on the lottery next week. Wish me luck!
