At Age 7, I Was A Champion!

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When I was a first-year high school student in the Philippines, I was a champion in a pool tournament beating a fourth-year opponent in the finals. When I was 10 years old, I won a slingshot competition hitting all 10 tin cans in the finals at an approximate distance of 10 meters, 6 feet, and 5 inches. Good, ey? But nothing is more memorable and exciting for me than this unique competition that I, just 7 years old then, excelled unanimously beating a guy 5 years older than me. It was a “long-distance peeing competition.” In our dialect it was called - "patorayok" (pah-two-rah-yuk). It was a unique kind of competition in our village by youngsters (ages 7 to 12) when I was a kid. I beat all kids even those 10-year-olds. One day my friends challenged a boastful 12-year-old boy to show what he got as far as long distance peeing was concerned by doing a one-on-one competition with me. At first I was reluctant. I was just 7 years old and he was 12 years old. It was like a crow versus a hummingbird. But incessantly prodded by my friends, I accepted to compete with the big guy. And so the big guy and I stood side by side as dozen of kids and some nosey old men watched. We drew our “guns” and got ready to fire. I took a quick glance at my opponent’s gun. Man, I almost backed out! Why? His was like a jumbo hotdog while mine was like a mini hotdog! My best friend whispered to me – “Don’t worry, you drank a lot of water. Just let it go and beat the big guy!” That was enough to boost my confidence and fighting spirit. One of my friends shouted: “Get ready, boys! 1, 2, 3, goooooo!” I closed my eyes to concentrate. I bit my lower lip as I let it go. I opened my eyes to see how we were doing. OMG, mine was like a rainbow reaching about almost 2 meters. My opponent appeared to have a problem firing his gun. It was firing but could not even hit a distance of couple of feet. He tried so hard but then he started running out of salty fluid. That brought out the killer instinct in me. I pushed everything that was left inside my tank reaching an unofficial world-record distance of approximately 2 meters and one inch! All hell broke loose. Everybody was applauding noisily. One of my friends raised my right arm and shouted “Champion Julito!” That was my first taste of victory. I believed I won because of the "law of supply and demand.” In my case there was a hell lot of supply of water in my tank ready to supply the demand to win. Were you also a fierce or cutthroat competitor like Donald Trump when you were young? I was!