“Thank you,” I finished. My speech was followed by a loud applause. With one last glance of the combination of new and familiar faces in the audience, I walked off of the stage. Unbeknownst to me, I would be the first of the four candidates to be called up to the stage to recite a speech. I was caught off guard when I heard my name. Now sitting down with the others, I took a deep breath and acknowledged that all I prepared for was over.
As I listened to the next three speeches, I could not evade the thoughts that made their way into my brain. I was proud of the amount of work that I put into running for a position on the student council, nevermind president. Some people may have gotten my hopes up. A lot of my friends told me that I was very daring to run for president; especially after I had just entered high school and did not know everyone I would be going to school with for the next four years.
Obviously, I was nervous. On top of not knowing my entire class, I did not know any of those who ran against me. Since they were all from a different middle school than I was, they knew their population from school as I knew mine. However, that did not make me feel that they would have a better chance than I did.
The voting was open throughout the rest of the day, the results being posted at exactly 2:39. As I went through my day, each class seemed to go faster than the previous. I was being told, “Good job!”, “You’re going to win!”,  “I just voted for you!” and my smile brightened every time. I expected a great outcome from this positive feedback.
As ninth period neared, I felt anxious once again. My palms were sweaty and I felt like I was losing confidence. I watched the clock, focusing my eyes on it instead of paying attention to my chemistry lesson. This was it, it was 2:30, nine minutes to go. I felt nauseous, like everything that could ever go wrong, would go wrong within these nine minutes.
The dreaded time was up, the sound of the bell pulled me out of my thoughts. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to leave before everyone found out or be in school to see the results. As I walked towards the front entrance, I began to pull out my phone. A notification appeared, alerting me that something was posted from the freshman class advisor. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to read the results. Slowly, I unlocked my phone, clicking to open my notification.
I didn’t see my name under the president position. Feeling that all the hard work and courage I put into this was for nothing, I was devastated. Though I knew that there was a chance I would not win, I had put so much hope and so much work into this. As I was upset, I was glad that I decided to read the final results by myself. Though the sadness did not carry on for too long.
As there were only six people who ran, there were also six positions, so we each expected to be on the student council. What I did not expect was to see my name under the position of historian. From the beginning of my candidacy, I knew I wanted to be president. But as a photographer myself, the description of the historian position intrigued me as well, entailing that this person is in charge of “saving memories”. The reason I ran for president was because I wanted to make a difference, whether it be in our school or just in my grade.
I realized that there is so much that I could do, president or not. As days passed, I noticed that there are so many opportunities for me to make use of my position. Being on the freshman student council, I had the ability to go and attend freshman sports games, able to take pictures and meet new people. Through the pictures, I was given the chance to be more social, to talk to those I’ve never met before.
Before I knew it, my friends who played on freshman teams invited me to take pictures. One sport lead to another and soon enough, I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. I started out thinking that it was all about becoming class president and I couldn’t think beyond the disappointment. In the end, I found a position more suitable for me after giving myself a chance to try something new.