Best speaker Magazine Issue 2 - December 2017 | Page 38

A Happy
Heartbeat
by Himansa Herath
I
know you might feel the need to go
past this page and start reading a
shorter and a more colourful article.
But you need to stop for a moment. It is a
very humble request to my reader, made
with all my heart. I wish to take you on a
journey that taught me how to be humble
for the rest of my life, when I was full of
pride before. It is my sincere wish that you
will listen to me and realise what a winner
can learn from this happy heartbeat.
Last year in Best Speaker, for the very
first time in my life, I became a winner.
This achievement was special to me
because I had never won for the past 22
years of my life, even though I had taken
part in many extra-curricular activities
in school. And because for the first time
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BEST SPEAKER MAGAZINE 2017
in my life, my father, my biggest blessing,
saw me winning on a stage and I saw how
magical it was. It was also special for me
because I began to realise who my true
friends were, those who actually believed
in me, and those who only pretended. It
was special to me because I knew what the
Gavel Club had taught me will never go
to waste.
Best Speaker has always been a journey
full of planning, constant failures, endless
sleepless nights, relentless effort, and
finally a sky high achievement. When all of
us decided on the theme for Best Speaker
2016, “The Nebulae: Where the Stars Are
Born”, we knew that every moment of Best
Speaker should be magical. And indeed it
was. It was amazing to see how little teams
got together to make sure that even if it
was just a that pen we needed, we had
it at the tip of our finger. Every Gavelier
made sure that no one was left behind and
that everyone had their own role to play.
No matter how much work we had, how
stressed we were, even on the day before
the finals and each day up to that, we all
gathered around to enjoy a cup of tea and
eat a snack to make sure that more than
everything, our bonds continued to grow
stronger each day. And the beautiful thing
was, if a totally new member decides to
join Gavel even on the day of the Grand
Finale, he or she was more than welcome
to the family, and it was something
extraordinary.
I get disappointed in human beings
easily. I believed this was because they
rarely appreciated the commitment of
another person, they are never truly happy
with someone else’s success, they become