Friday, September 7, 2012

A great night at Meritas


May 26th, 2012


Okay so on Thursday I went to our school annual Meritas celebration. It is an event that celebrates academic and extracurricular achievement and recognizes students who actively participate among the school community. 

I got a pretty big shock though. First when they started to call up the highest overall marks in each class (for grade 11), my name got called first. At first I was like "What?". The MC then proceeded to say "Shannon LeBlanc, highest in Travel and Tourism..." I had I slight idea about that one. She then proceeded to say "Highest in Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology..." At that point I had already gotten up from my seat to walk up to the stage. I'll be honest, my reaction was reflective of shock at that point. I said to myself "What? Really?". I kind of stopped in my tracks a little bit at that point because I was scared. Finally the MC finished by saying "and highest in grade 11 Dramatic Arts". At that point I nearly had a heart attack out of the shock it produced for me. Drama? Really? That's the class I'm in right now. Out of all the kids in my class, I have the highest mark? After seeing my progress sheet and all of the level 1's on it. That probably shocked me the most out of all of them.

I finally made it to the stage, where the teacher then proceeded to hand me the certificates. He then said to me "Congratulations.". I replied "Thank you Sir." I walked over to the side and soon after walked back down back to my seat.

After all that was said and done, the time came to announce the clubs. The first club that was called up was the drama club. I took part in this club (hence Sears Drama Fest). At first I was resistant about going up, just out of fear that someone might say that I wasn’t in drama club. But then after a short ponder I realized that this was highly irrational, as everyone already knew that I was. So therefore, I proceeded to make my way up to the stage again, where I was met by all of my other drama peers and my Drama teacher Ms. Smith. She proceeded to hand me the badge. After everyone received the badges, I went to go sit back down.

The grande finale was about 20 minutes later when the award, the one in which I desired the most proceeded to be called upon. The Community Involvement Award. Based on the fact that I had over 600 community service hours, I had a strong feeling that I would be a qualifier for this award. All of my friends turned and stared at me, hinting at the fact that I was most likely going to get the award.
I sat trembling in my chair as the teacher, who just so happened to be my English teacher Ms. Wilcox preceded to the stage. She started her speech about the winner. She said things like “She is an active role model and influence in our community…” The “she” aspect should have been the first cue. But of course I, being the negative person that I am doubted it. She then proceeded to say “She has over 600 community service hours”. That is when it clicked that there might be a slight possibility that it might be me. Finally, she then continued to say “The winner of this year’s Community Involvement Award is… Shannon LeBlanc”. At that point I was frozen in my seat, l basically unable to move. A couple seconds later I got over the initial shock and proceeded to stand up and walk towards the stage. It seemed like an eternity, but when I finally got there I was met by Ms. Wilcox and a plaque. She then smiled and said to me “Congratulations!” I have rarely won anything in my life, so this was really an honour for me. However, while I was standing up there I was petrified as I looked out at the audience and their gaze fixed upon me. And to be honest, I hate being the center of attention, so that whole occurrence just startled me a little bit. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting for my mom to take the picture I preceded back to my seat. The applause died down and the celebration continued on. Still trembling slightly I handed the award over to my mom to show her. She smiled and said “Good job.” When all was said and done, I felt really proud and happy of myself.

After Meritas was over, everyone walked to the back of the gym to get refreshments and to start the after dance. They then shut down the lights and turned up the speakers to symbolize that the party had just begun. I walked over to my boyfriend and my best friend Lindsey and her boyfriend and we all started to dance. Throughout the night I got many compliments about how I looked, including many from my boyfriend. I hate the attention so it was kind of awkward for me. But a couple of slow dances and a couple of swollen feet later, the dance ended. After that I walked out to the car with Kieran and my sister and we proceeded to drive home. We got home at around 11:15pm, by which at that time I was exhausted. I walked up to my room and passed out on the bed in a dead sleep. During that time I dreamed about that night and everything that happened in between.

I definitely conclude that that night was one of the best nights I have ever had in a long time.


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