College+Essay

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Winning; many people will write about their most significant accomplishment as making varsity baseball or being president of SCA, or maybe they are like me and it is winning their first competition in something that they love. Being a part of C-CAP, Careers through Culinary Arts Program, has changed my life. It has made me realize how much I love cooking and competing, and they give out amazing scholarship for being good at it. I thought competing was going to be fun and carefree especially since I had practiced so much, but little did I know that it was going to be so stressful and I thought it was going to be the end of me.====== When I arrived at the competition I was a nervous wreck. Beads of sweat were rolling down my face and my palms were clammy. My friend and competitor, Harry, was with me in the cold, gray waiting room of the Norfolk campus of Tidewater Community College. Then, it was time to start when the coordinator, Sharon Coates, said to grab our equipment and set up our stations. That’s when everything started to go downhill. I’m holding a thirty pound tub of equipment and my station is not there. I informed the coordinator of it and she said she would get right on it. Ten minutes later, my station finally shows up and I can set up. I thought that was my one and only mishap for the day; so I put on a smile, washed my hands, and started competing. I had to make two French omelets, cooked perfectly with no brown spots and a smooth surface, ad two vegetable salads inside of a ring of thinly sliced cucumber. I started with my salads since they take the most time and we only had an hour to do everything. I just made my dressing and seasoned it with salt and pepper and added some sugar or at least what I thought was sugar. I tasted my salads like you’re supposed to do everything when you cook and that’s when I noticed my mistake. I added everything I could to drown out the salty taste and hopped for the best. At that time I was angry for messing up on something so simple but I had to keep going. When it came to the omelets I knew they were not going to be perfect. I never got them perfect in my two weeks of straight practice for at least 3 hours every day. We had to use a portable burner to cook our omelets and I was confident that it was going to go well. I was wrong again. My burner wouldn’t light. I was freaking out about to break down in tears; until a judge walks by and my heart stops. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I have always been told that the judges are tough; however, this judge saved me. He pulled out his lighter and lit my burner for me. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere in the competition.

Before I knew it the hour was up and I thought I was done. My teacher told me I did a great job and I went home waiting to hear something. A couple of weeks later I got a letter in the mail saying I was in the finals, but since I was only a junior there were no finals; it just means I won a college trip with other juniors. I went to the awards ceremony and everybody was there, Dr. Elliot, my principle, my teacher, even admissions representatives from other colleges. My name was called and that’s when I realized that I won the C-CAP Summer Chefs program with all the other competitors and also I won a four day summer camp to the Culinary Institute of Virginia. I was ecstatic that even though I went through many problems I won something, and that is my most significant accomplishment.