She came, she performed..and almost conquered

When I was in primary school, taking part in competitions was often limited to the academia. Simply because I'm hopeless in everything else! It would mostly be an English quiz or a storytelling competition or the occasional pantun competition. I won some of them but lost many too! It was fun taking part, especially those with friends. The adrenaline rush as we fought tooth and nail to win every point and the feeling of group camaraderie were some of the things that I find hard to forget till this day.

So when my daughter came home from school one day and declared that she had been selected to represent her school in an action song competition, I was thrilled to bits. We’ve all heard of storytelling and choral speaking but Action song?? Ditto…that was my reaction too.Well apparently it’s singing a medley of English songs accompanied by actions and movements. Hence, the name.

Hannan's Action Song journey began way back a couple of months ago. She went for her first competition with her team sometime in March and slowly made it through the succeeding rounds securing the district and state level competitions. The whole family was ecstatic when she announced that she’d be representing Selangor in the national level competition in September. Both hubby and I were terribly proud of her. Especially since none of us has ever made it further than class level in any of the competitions we entered during our school years. I think secretly we were living our childhood dreams through our daughter's achievements!

Anyway, the finals was held at Kuantan, Pahang and the whole family was there to watch history in the making!The first in the family to have made it to the Nationals. Hoorayyyy!

They came, they performed and they did their very best. Though it would have been super fantastic to win, it was not meant to be. The top three spots went to the other states. Sure there was some disappointment from the Selangor camp but that is part of life. You win some, you lose some. I was close to tears when I saw Hannan and her mates crowding their teacher and asking her why they didn't win. I have to say I was most impressed by the teacher's response. One that had a bit of psychology, pedagogy and analogy in it. A complete answer that left the 9 year old girls feeling slightly better and in a happier mood after that. Thank you Pn Shazrah.

And words of consolation come in many forms. My husband on the other hand, overheard a different gogy-approach adopted by a teacher from the northern region. It went something like this...(to be read with a thick northern accent of course!):

"Hang ingat hang sorang aje yang nak menang? Hang ingat balik-balik hang soghang sahaja yang nak menang. Kasi chan lah kat depa, depa pun nak menang jugak!" (rather unconventional I admit, but it worked too, coz his student broke into a laughter after that)

Anyway, as we left Kuantan and made our way home, I relayed the news to our family members via sms. One sms was read out loud to my daughter later as I felt it conveyed the true meaning of taking part in competitions.

It came from her dear Mak Lang which read "Don't worry, we celebrate effort, ALLAH determines results!"

And that is what we call TAKDIR.

Hannan and her team before boarding the bus to Kuantan

the highlight of the trip - a 30 min splash time at the swimming pool

my daughter, the flower in the middle.