She kicked in the door

She kicked in the door. The studio was empty with nobody else
besides her. There was a lot of drawing boards lying on the floor. And
there were many drawing stands. She saw hers and she gave it a kick
fiercely. The stand now lied flat on the floor, looking defeated.

She was frustrated and in tears. She wanted to pull somebody's hair.
She wanted to yell. She wanted to cry. But all that would not help. No,
none of these actions would change the competition's result. Tears were
all over her face. She could not help but cry. Her heart was
broken.

For the very first time, she had tasted failure. She could not belive
that she did not get any prizes at all. The bitterness, the sourness,
even saltiness, definitely was not sweet! It was worse than eating
bittergourds or any bitter medicine. It was painful, like a sharp knife
stabing right into the center of her heart.

She walked towards the windows and there she could see the garden. That
was where the rest of her studio mates and lecturers were having a
cocktail party to celebrate this occassion.

Yi-Ming looked at Hung-Wei with green envy in her eyes. He has gotten
the place that she wanted to get, and thought she would. Hung-Wei was
the Gold Medal prize winner for the National Art Contest this year. His
face was blooming with sunny glory. He was talking to Dr Ong and Dr Ong
was smiling at him approvingly.

Hung-Wei was always a humble and sincere guy. All studio mates loved
him as he was friendly. So unlike the peacock her. She became proud
after winning the Gold Medal prize for National Art Contest two years
ago. She never bothered for anyone's comments, including Dr Ong's.
Meanwhile Hung-Wei took the lecturers' advice seriously and was very
critical about every piece of his artwork.

She now realized that she lost because she did not even fulfil the
basic requirement of the contest. Dr Ong has warned her many times
about her mistakes but she ignored him. "What does he know!" she
thought with scorn. She went on with her stubbornness and ended up
losing totally in the contest. She really regret now, but time could
not be turned back. Everything that is done cannot be undone.

Thinking back of all her past behaviours, she felt really bad and began
to repent silently to God. She knew this failure had taught her a lot.
And it was something more precious than any Gold Medal prize.

Pride goes before destruction.