Weirdly, I feel for the judges.

In the past, I always criticized judges. How they act, them being gay (honestly, people do criticize that aspect. especially when a gay dude wins). But today, I saw a pattern. WHEN WE WIN, WE THINK THAT THOSE JUDGES ARE GENUINE GENIUSES. WHEN WE LOSE, WE THINK THAT THEY'RE SOME BUNCH OF BIASED PEOPLE.

Let me tell you how I discovered that pattern personally. Here's some personal instances of wins and losses.

When I was in 5th grade, I represented our school in an interschool declamation competition. Since I won the school elocution competition. I lost and I ranted and whined like a baby. I criticized the judges and their contestant. Because the winner came from their own school. I rationalized. The thing was, I'm no good in declamation.

In 1st year high school I won extemporaneous twice and got 2nd twice. I lost to the same person. A 4th year high school student. I also felt it was on uneven grounds because she's a 4th year student. But I noticed that when I beat the other year levels I felt some fulfillment.

In 2nd year, in a new school, I tried my luck again in declamation since I had no other choice. Our school doesn't have extemporaneous competitions. Maybe because we prefer memorized pieces from the minds of other people than our own. Where's the so-called "Eloquentia Perfecta" there? I won in the class declamation and I got whipped in the inter-class competition. I didn't feel bitter since I already was convinced that declamation isn't really my style.

In 3rd year, I got transferred from semi-honor's class to honor's class. It was a ZERO year for me in terms of speaking engagements. But I did get to expand my vocab and polish my grammar courtesy of our teacher's zero tolerance in terms of scores.

This year, I got in this group called pool of speakers and I won a scholarship in a regional competition sponsored by our school. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS BIASED. I didn't complain or what because I know that to explain it requires more than just my opinion. I had to prove a point. I had to make sure that I there'll be no more doubts. I won and represented the Philippines in the Scout International Youth Forum and placed in the Top 4 ( there's no such thing as champion. being the Host Country/asia-pacific/european/middle east representative is the farthest one can go). THEY CRITICIZED THAT SCOUT-ONLY COMPETITIONS ELIMINATE NON-SCOUT SPEAKERS. My take? I didn't rant. Again, I can't disprove them with my Opinion. These last few weeks, I really had to find a way to win in a competition that is NEUTRAL, participated by TOP SCHOOLS, and with OTHER PEOPLE AS CO-PARTICIPANTS. The latest competition was the Speech Olympics. Indeed, I won. But still, I met some criticism again. Who did they criticize this time? THE JUDGES. Yes, truly, people use their creativity now for criticism. They'd always find a nice reason to rationalize. How can they criticize the judges if they weren't even known by their names, by their school and all that other bias-inducing crap. WHAT ARE WE TURNING INTO? LIKE THAT FOX WHO DIDN'T GET THE "SOUR GRAPES"? WHY? ARE THEY IMMUNE TO LOSING SUCH THAT PEOPLE WHO DON'T DECLARE THEM AS WINNERS ARE AUTOMATICALLY CATEGORIZED AS "NONSENSICAL"?

My message? DON'T ENTER COMPETITIONS IF YOU DON'T RESPECT THE PEOPLE WHO DECLARE WINNERS. COMPETITIONS AREN'T COMPETITIONS ANYMORE WHEN YOU DON'T ENTERTAIN THE IDEA OF LOSING.