Excellence Behind Threads

[original post here: September 20, 2009]

This is the essay I wrote for an inter-school contest, The Gleaner Literary Congress (Elementary, Highschool, and College), during my last year in highschool. This peace, with the topic excellence, won 2nd place though I myself could not believe that it actually captured the lecturer’s attention and the fact that this article defeated even those of the college students’ is amazing.

EXCELLENCE BEHIND THREADS

Have you ever seen a cross-stitched image? Where does a simple photograph and a cross-stitched one differ? And why do people rather spend their hours making as such?

Every time I see a picture made of cross-stitch, I can’t help but admire it. It seems that it’s more worth-viewing than a photograph made from a paper and an ink. It always makes me think that how I wish I can make one, but the thought of giving up a lot of time also makes me back-out. The thought of offering all your willingness and patience makes me stop, but how can I come up with a very astonishing image if I wont start stitching those small crosses together?

It makes me remember about my teacher who asked us before, “Do you know what grade Dr. Jose Rizal gets when he was still studying?”. Answers like 90, 95, and even 100 were given by my classmates. Ma’am laugh and said the correct answer, it was “excellent”. Our national hero wished for the best results, he aspired for excellence and so to achieve it, he offered everything- courage, determination, and perseverance.

We cannot witness and appreciate a cross-stitched picture if we will just wait and make others stitch it for us. The taste of success is more delicious if we know that it came from our own hardships. And if you want to reach excellence, start doing so.

Notice that a cross-stitch is composed of small x’s that will be delivered into a complete image of what you’re aspiring to see. As you add a cross on that cloth, you might think that there are still a lot left to sew, but these crosses will make a difference that will slowly show the image lying behind those threads. The image of excellence.

edited*

xiXi =3