Hi, my name is Alicia. The story I’m about to tell you was such
an emotional rollercoaster for me. There was a betrayal, there was a feud, and
there were plenty of surprises. Anyway, this story started when a new girl
came to our high school. Her name was Sara, and she had moved from
another state with her mom. At school she was always sad, tired, and too
shy to talk to anyone. Later I learned that her father had gone to
prison, and that they were not doing very well. Sara tried to help her mom with several jobs
that her mom had, and she was under a lot of pressure mentally. So, seeing that she was having a hard time
communicating, I decided to take the first step. I sat down with her at lunch and it turned
out that she was really really nice. We liked the same bands, the same movies,
and generally had similar views on life. Pretty soon Sara became my best friend. She would come over for sleepovers, which
only happened at my place, since she was embarrassed of where she lived with her mom. So, one day a competition was announced at
our school. WIthout getting into too much detail, it was
a competition involving ecological projects for our state or even for the whole country. I promise not to bore you with what the projects
were about, but the key thing was that the person who had the best project at school
was supposed to go to New York City to present it at a conference. And that’s when I knew I had to win. A lot of you might not understand this, but
going to New York City was always a dream of mine. Since I was a kid, I watched movies set in
NYC, heard songs about it, and I fell in love with the city - even though I had literally
never been there. We live in Montana, which is pretty far away,
and my parents prefer to spend vacations camping, but the most important thing is that… they
are raising me this way. If I want something, I need to work hard and
earn it myself. And this competition was a perfect opportunity. So I started working on my project, and…
there was not much else in my life that I paid attention to for a while. I studied tons of literature, some of it was
really complicated pro-level stuff; I did not get much sleep, and I was worried that
I was getting too distracted… So after a couple of weeks I started to feel
exhausted, and that was when Sara invited me for a sleepover. I mean, this was the first time she ever mentioned
going over to her place. So, I agreed. I needed a day off anyway. And I gotta say, Sara knew really well how
important this project was for me and how crazy I got about. So their apartment turned to be tiny but cozy,
and there was nothing to be embarrassed about really. She had her own room and that was where we
hung out. Sara went to the kitchen to get us some snacks,
and I looked around her room. At first I didn't pay much attention to a
pile of papers on her table. They were none of my business anyway. But Sara was away for so long that I looked
at them again… and I was shocked. It was so obvious that she was working on
a project for the same contest. When Sara came back, she realized I had seen
the papers and tried to explain. I did not want to listen. I just stood up and left. As I was walking all the way back home, I
was furious. I was not mad at her for taking part in the
contest – of course not. I am all for a fair competition! I was mad because she did not tell me. That was shady! I mean… I told her every single detail about my project,
she could easily be stealing my ideas. I am a bit embarrassed to say this right now,
but at that moment, for me… this meant war. My project was almost ready, but I started
improving it literally night and day. Sara tried to talk to me several times, but
I just ignored her. And the worst part was that when I looked
at Sara’s papers that night I saw a pretty good point that I could use in my own work. I hesitated, I knew I was wrong, but the stakes
were too high and I was getting a little crazy. Long story short, the contest week was close. There was a whole panel of fifteen people
that were tasked with rating the projects: some of them were our teachers, some were
local ecological experts, some were people from city council, and there were even several
students. For the next 5 days they were supposed to
see the presentations and choose a winner. My presentation was perfect, of course, but
the hardest part was waiting. This was like the longest week of my life. The only thing that saved me was the fact
that a girl I knew was on the panel, and after I kept bugging her for two days straight,
she told me what everyone thought of my work. Every single member thought my project was
by far the best. I was overwhelmed. I was hyper-focused on getting the prize at
the ceremony and then I could start packing my stuff for New York City. But I had no idea what would happen on the
ceremony day. So, I got all dressed up, ready for my moment
of glory. But just before the ceremony one of my classmates
came up to me and asked if I had seen Sara. I said I had not and that was when I heard
the story. I have already told you that her father was
in jail, and the truth was that he was serving time on the Rikers Island, which is a prison…
you’re right, in New York City. And that was why she was doing the project
in the first place. She has not seen her dad for two years already. And she and her mom could not afford to go
see him. During the ceremony, I learned that with me
getting first place… Sara came in second. And, maybe, if I had had a chance to make
a speech, it would've been like a movie scene where I give the prize to her and everyone
cries… but there were no speeches. Sara did not even show up to the ceremony. I did not feel any joy anymore, I felt bad
for Sara. So the next day I went over to her place. We talked and I learned that during this whole
time she was just too afraid to tell me, but she also missed her dad so much… I was heartbroken. It was not easy for me and it actually took
a while for me to make this decision. But a week later I refused to go, and Sara,
as the runner-up, got to go to New York. Sara said that she did not want me to give
up this opportunity, but I saw that deep inside she was very happy and grateful. I cried for the whole night to be honest,
but I never regretted my decision. After all, Sara’s my best friend and I almost
let this contest stand between us. And after all this, our friendship got even
stronger. Sara’s leaving in a couple of weeks from
now, and I’m so excited for her. Thanks a lot for watching! And don’t forget to like and subscribe.
