Yesterday, I went to my first University Interscholastic League (UIL) competition and competed against about 8 schools around Dallas. From the lows of the event to the announcing of winners, this is the exciting journey and experience of these competitive events.
What is the UIL?
As I said before, the UIL stands for University Interscholastic League, and is only in Texas. They run multiple contests in academics, athletics, music, and fine arts. Yesterday, I competed in A+ academics, which is offered to 2nd-8th grade students. It included events involved in speaking, writing, STEM concepts, and more. Generally, a single A+ event has 3 students per grade, so a middle school would have 9 students for an event.
My Preparations
I tried out for multiple events, and got in Editorial Writing, Ready Writing, Oral Reading, and Social Studies. During school WIN times, I would meet with my team to prepare. For editorial writing and ready writing, its especially important to just read. Because I don’t know what the topic will be, all I could prepare with were old topics and by just reading. Social studies was harder to prepare for, though, because there is so much to know about American history, but I already did Civics Bee a few weeks earlier, so I still knew a lot of the material. I prepared for about a month in total.
Pre-competition
When I got to the school where the competition was being held, there were over a hundred students roaming around the cafeteria. I got my card with my number and name, but it only said “Oral Reading” (I had editorial and ready writing a month earlier during school). I asked a UIL coach what it meant, and he explained that the coordinators didn’t register me correctly for social studies, so I couldn’t compete!
I was literally heartbroken, because now I couldn’t compete in a competition in which I tried out and showed enough skill to be in, and prepared a month for?! This didn’t just happen to me, but many students in more than one competition had this issue. But there was nothing I could do about it in the end.
After some time of sitting at my schools table and watching the Social Studies team go to their competition, they announced the winners of Editorial Writing, and I thought that Editorial would only be graded per school; but it was for ALL the schools in Dallas where I was! They announced me first place, and I was so happy. So my emotions went from sullen to confident and happy.
Oral Reading
In 4th grade, my elementary school had an Oral Reading UIL, so of course I joined! But there could only be 3 students competing in my grade, and one girl was doing terrible, but the coach couldn’t take her out because her mom worked at the school! So she chose a name out of a jar… and she chose me to be removed. I had to hear my best friend repeat “The Three Little Pigs” by Roald Dahl so many times, I memorized it. But I promised myself to one day do Oral Reading.
Fast forward 2 years later, and I was in 6th grade. I went to UIL tryouts without practicing at all, but I had every dynamic of “The Three Little PIgs” still stuck in my head, and the coach, aka my librarian, made it seem like I was guaranteed a spot. So every week, my team had a practice session. I chose “Television” by Roald Dahl.
Fast forward a month later, where I’m at the competition with my team, who have become some of my most memorable friends. We took some group photos, and then went upstairs. The school is new, and was insanely huge. We spent most of our time looking for the right room, because the coordinator was sending us to random rooms. After an hour, I was finally able to go to my room. I said my poem, more confident than ever. As I was the last on my team to finish, I went downstairs back to the cafeteria.
They soon announced the Ready Writing results, and I got 3rd place! But my team was still waiting for the results for who would move on, because speaking events had a final round. After an hour, the results were finally announced, and only 2 of us from our team got to the next round. And one of those 2 included me. I was so excited, but obviously, did feel bad for the rest of my team, who worked hard to be here.
They left, and after a while, they called all the students in the finals to a big waiting room, and it was by volunteer to go. I went 3rd, and the judges had absolutely no emotion, unlike my last judge. I felt like I didn’t do as good, and I went back to the cafeteria right after. I met my friends from another event, and they announced the result over 2 hours later! But it was worth the wait, because I got 2nd place!
Learnings
Apart from learning speaking and writing skills, I learned many more things that can be applied in everyday life. First, I should go for as many opportunities as I can. I also learned to double check everything, because I definitely don’t want to be out of another UIL like this year.
If you live in Texas and is looking for a great competition, then I recommend a UIL competition, because you gain more than a win; you gain knowledge, friends, and opportunities.