Forget About The Competition: My Mother was a competiton addict, subscribed to the 'Competitors Journal' magazine, and at times we had to eat stuff, clean our teeth or polish our shoes with different things because she was entering a competiton and needed the labels, or a coupon from the packet, to do so.
She won the odd prize or two, the largest, both in size and worth was a chopper bike; at a time my brother and I were too old for such a beast; so she sold it.
Likewise, as everyone does, our family enter competitons (mainly the Lotto) now and again, but to date with no financial or life-changing success.
And even though I have entered but never won a short story competitition, I have been drawn into entering three during the past few weeks. But why does one make the effort when the lifetime odds are so poor, I wonder? Well, it's that old favourite 'you've gotta be in it to win it' slogan which forces us from the 'oh, I can't be bothered' syndrome into a more positive 'sod it, I'll give it a try.'
Confident though I am in my stories, the judges, fickle as they often are, may not agree, so I'm not holding my breath.
But they were fun and enjoyabe to do, and that's all that matters.