So I got a letter in the mail today. It attracted my attention at once, as it was in a larger yellow envelope. I tore it open and noticed another envelope inside. The second envelope was also addressed to me – my same name, street address, and zip code. Wrong city. This has happened before.

The second envelope was opened. But I wasn’t worried. It just looked like junk mail anyway. You know, the kind with the fake credit card?

But the closer I looked, the less this card looked fake. I searched the papers for an explanation, and finally found a brochure explaining my $50 VISA GIFT CARD.

Bwhah?

Oh, it must have been a rebate. I must have filled out a mail-in-rebate for something. And forgotten about it. But when I tried to recall the last item I had purchased that would have been expensive enough to warrant such a hefty rebate, I was at a loss. My cell phone? That was two years ago. Something from Best Buy? Not since last Christmas.

Then I remembered that the package had been opened. HOW NICE of that person who received this $50 VISA GIFT CARD that can be used ANYWHERE and by ANYONE who possesses it to not go to the mall, but to the post office to report a misprinted address. Oh, thank You, Lord Jesus. Please bless that person today in a special way.

But why was this mailed to me in the first place?

After searching through terms and conditions and directions for use, I finally found the letter.

Dear Elizabeth:
Congratulations! Your entry in the Unilever “Suave Dollar General Education Essay Contest” has been determined as a Second Prize Winner!

And suddenly my mind travels back several months. I am sitting in front of the computer. I had just read on a coupon forum that there exists out there in cyberspace somewhere a $3 Suave coupon to be used in Dollar General stores. $3 Suave coupon? That would buy at least three shampoos! I clicked the link, and searched for the coupon. And searched. For the coupon. And searched. Hmm. The only thing I could find was this little link at the bottom of the page about some essay contest. Maybe the coupon printed after you submitted your entry.

For a $3 coupon? I’d write an essay. They didn’t say it had to be a good essay.

It was to be an essay on my education, and a mentor who had motivated me in my educational journey.

So I began to type.

My educational hero? Well, that’d be my mom. No questions. I remember explaining that my mom is a teacher. And that she was my inspiration for becoming a teacher myself (those two years that I taught). And that she, despite being a single working mother, worked hard to earn her masters degree because she valued her own education that much.

I honestly do not remember anything special about that essay. I didn’t even copy/paste it to Microsoft Word to check for spelling errors. I just sat and typed. When I was done, I submitted it and waited for my coupon to print.

And it didn’t.

Oh, boy. Did that ruin my day.

But I soon forgot about it (obviously) until that letter came in the mail.

ISN’T THAT FUNNY?! I WON! SECOND PLACE!

And my husband, the love of my life, turns to me upon hearing this gleeful tale and says, “I bet you were the only one to enter that contest.”

NUH-UH. I know for a FACT that AT LEAST one other person entered that contest.

*Grumbles*

So I head to the internet to look up more details on this contest. I wanted to know 1) if they had posted my essay on their site; I was curious to see what I had written and 2) just how many other people had entered this contest.

And what I found made me smile. And then grimace. And then turn beet-red.

CNNMoney.com had an article on this contest. And they reported THOUSANDS of entries. Ha!

I also learned from them that there was a Grand Prize winner and four 1st prize winners. (So technically I was 5th. And who knows how many of us 2nd prize losers winners there were).

And the Grand Prize winners AND the 1st prize winners all go to go to NEW YORK CITY and see Fantasia perform in The Color Purple. The article did not go too much in-depth on the winnings, because that was not that point of the article, but it did say that the 1st prize winners also got $5,000. And I was thisclose. *Sigh* Oh well. $50 is better than a $3 coupon!

I then read the excerpts from the 1st prize winners’ essays. And this is the part where I blush. And bow my head. And turn and walk away from the computer in shame.

The oldest winner was NINETEEN YEARS OLD. And the youngest? *Cough* TWELVE *Cough*.

Mmmm hmmm. Should I still be so proud that I, as a TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD COLLEGE GRADUATE missed out on an all-expense-paid trip to New York and $5,000 because a TWELVE YEAR OLD out-wrote me?

How is it that in so short a time, I can be ecstatic, thankful, prideful, disappointed, and ashamed, all over a $50 gift card?

To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. – Proverbs 8:13

The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. -Proverbs 16:5

Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin! – Proverbs 21:4

The Good Lord knew that my head would swell if I won an essay contest. So He threw a couple pre-teens in there to knock me down a notch or three.