Culturally Preconditioned

Apparently, I DO have a superpower after all..

I was asked to answer this simple question : “If you could be a superhero, what special powers would you want and why?”

I can’t exactly remember what my exact answer was, word per word, but I distinctively remember answering it in a limerick-like prose, ending it with a line that says … ” And all Contests shall be mine!”. That’s right. I wanted the superpower of winning each and every single contests that I enter.

I won my first prize when I was 10. I won something from Galaxie magazine : two casette tapes, a New Kids on the Block t-shirt (they haven’t turned into NKOTB yet back then), an autographed Tommy Page poster (ohmigod, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth) and several other stuff. I didn’t think of it much back then. I think I just got lucky.

Through the years, I’ve won bits here and there.. cassettes, CDs, DVDs, books, hampers, tickets.. I was even lucky enough to have won a contest when I was studying in England (a production copy of Stereophonics’ single straight from the studio).. I don’t want to sound greedy (even though I really am, but I just don’t want to jinx it), but I never really hit anything really big, ya know… like RM100,000 or a house or a car.

I think the biggest prize that I won was the grand prize Sony Music gave away a couple of years ago.. an all expenses paid trip to catch Travis/Coldplay in concert in Singapore. It was an excellent prize.. 2 nights in the S$450 a night room at Fullerton (overrated IMO, but I don’t want to sound ungrateful), and excellent seats at the Indoor Stadium watching Travis in concert. OMG. I really wanted to see them perform live so bad. I didn’t care much for Coldplay at the time (they were actually opening for Travis back then) but they too made it such a memorable time. WE FUCKING NEED MORE BRIT BANDS IN THIS REGION, GODDAMMIT.

But nothing can compare to my two friends who seems to win everything you can imagine.. they’ve won gold pendants, trips to Bali, Korea, Singapore, East Malaysia, at least two notebooks, all kinds of electronic devices.. I mean.. EVERYTHING! I mean, seriously. It’s kind of ridiculous. I’m not bitching.. I’m just amazed at their luck.. and their perseverence.

See.. the thing that most people whine about when they hear you keep winning contests and competition.. is almost always “gosh.. you’re so lucky.. you win EVERY time!”. While it’s true some people may have more luck than others, perseverence too is a key to winning prizes. For every single contest that we win.. most people don’t realize this, but there’s at least 30 others that we don’t. And that 30:1 ratio is very generous, and is only applicable to those ‘really lucky’ people. Like my two friends mentioned above. (I’m like.. maybe 80-100:1)

So when friends ask me what’s the secret to winning so much competitions? My advice is.. to never give up. If you try, you might not win. But if you DON’t try, you will never win. I guess a lot of people, have their hopes up too much when they enter a competition - ‘Oh, I MUST win this!’ - and then they get disappointed when they don’t, and they stop trying. You shouldn’t. Just try, and maybe not get your hopes up too high. I’ve come to a point, that I sometimes forget what contests I have entered.. LOL for real… so that when I don’t win, I won’t even remember that I entered the competition.

Anyway, yeah.. that’s my whole take on this. And why do I say I have a superpower after all? Because I just won this and I’ll probably be rubbing shoulders with Yatta boy this Friday.

(obligatory ingrate rant : but why Singapore.. again?)

ps. omg omg omg omg YATTA!

pps. What would Tok Ngah think of me, celebrating our 50th Independence Day in Singapura?