Sweet Taste of First Victory

Oh wow. I was hoping, I was hoping, but I was too afraid to have expectations. Before that, a quick recap. Been busy procrastinating. Playing online games again. EVE-Online, to be exact, a game about spaceships and space exploration. And I had a tiring call on Sunday, and when I came back on Monday, I...well...kinda went dead(er). Slept from evening to the next morning. Problem was, I didn't take off my contact lenses from when I put them on, on Sunday morning. We're talking about daily contact lenses here. Naturally, my eyes were red and swollen. Could barely open my left eye. And I misplaced my spectacles somewhere, having not worn them for a long time (skin condition, later story). Spent the whole day almost blind. Yep, without my spectacles or my contact lenses, everything is just a blur to me (short-sightedness, -7 both eyes). Had to squint mere inches from the 'puter screen to make out what I was doing. At any rate, Tita mailed me a website for writers, http://www.writing.com. It's a hub for aspiring writers to display their works, and to share comments and constructive criticisms. A platform for exposure, of sorts. She also linked me a daily competition on the website, where they give a prompt and writers submit stories less than 1000 words or poems 40 lines or less. When I checked the site after midnight yesterday, the prompt was to end the story or poem with "In the end, there were no regrets." I wrote a storm. In less than an hour, I came up with a story (what else, jiwang la), and disturbed Tita at 02:30 with a mail asking her to check it out for editing. I know. Totally wrong of me. Lucky she wasn't asleep. Other than some minor hitches, she gave it a green light to be submitted. So. I submitted. Immediately after I did, I received a mail congratulating me for becoming a Registered Author. Hear that, me, author. Anyway, I waited. And waited. And kept on refreshing the pages. And waited. And read the other entries. There were a couple more short stories and three or four poems. Fine, I can hear your derisive laugh. With so little entries, it's not a competition. Well, bugger off. I watched The Matrix to kill time. Man, I miss watching the trilogy. And when it was done, sometime after midnight, I refreshed the competition page. 2 winners, and mine is one of them. Yay! I've even gotten 2 criticisms to boot. Life is good. So this is what it feels like to win a writing competition. Sure, it's 1000 Writing.com Gift Points (GP). I don't even know what the points are for. I can sleep almost blind but happy. Now the next prompt is a story about a conversation overheard in a bus. Hmm.... PS: Do tell me if you can't access the short story. I'll post it here.