It was a much awaited day and I was excited about the annual funfair in the school. Early that morning, I quickly dressed up and hung the school ID card on my neck and went downstairs to have a quick breakfast. After that I just kept looking at my appearance, making sure not even a hair was out of place, until the school van arrived to take me to school.

The school was well-decorated for the event. After the assembly, everyone moved towards the ground where arrangements for the funfair had been made. The race I was participating in was the first one, it was called ‘Lemon on the spoon race’.

Perhaps most of you may know about this race and those who don’t, let me tell you it is one of the hardest of races because you have to keep a lemon on a spoon that you have to hold with your mouth while racing, and you are out if yuor drop the lemon.

So when it was time for our race to start, the teacher handed us a lemon and spoon each. I was nervous and felt weak. The crowd was cheering, however, I could not hear them and felt as if they were mocking and saying, “You will lose for sure!”

I took a deep breath and placed the bright yellow lemon on the spoon while thinking that, ‘I’m going to drop it anyway,’ because I was so nervous!

Then suddenly the whistle blew! Everybody started walking; they were moving faster and faster — in fact, faster than me! Of course, you cannot run while holding a spoon with a lemon on it in the race. While still on my track, I was trying to concentrate on keeping the lemon on the spoon. Many participants dropped their lemons and were disqualified.

So this made me more nervous, and at one time I was about to drop the lemon but just then I slowed down my pace and concentrated. I heard someone saying, “You can do it! Just concentrate!” and it gave me the courage to focus and keep going.

To my surprise, everyone’s lemons fell except mine and Omaima’s! I only realised I had crossed the finishing line when I heard the teacher shout, “Stop!”

There was loud clapping from the crowd — I had come first. I couldn’t believe it and felt as proud as a peacock when I stood at the victory stand. I was appreciated by my friends and family.

So friends, although it was just a fun race, nothing serious, what I felt after winning was enough to give me a lot of confidence. And I also learned that even the toughest of tasks can be accomplished if one makes up the mind and never gives up.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 9th, 2015