Establishing a team is quite tough. You have to consider and accept your member’s diverse perspectives and opinions. You also have to instill a culture that makes your team members work together smoothly and automatically. We started the team and called it Webgroundz some time in 2005. At the very first we were just three dedicated people namely marlito (me, 23), marvin (my brother, 26), harney (the big one, 22). We were all students of STI College Santa Rosa, Laguna and our venture started there. Every year the STI head quarters holds a competition entitled “Tagisan ng Talino (GIFS and TAGS - Developing a website)”. Entries come from various STI schools nationwide. In 2005, we were fortunately picked by our school to be a delegate to join the said competition. That was the first competition we had joined together. The competition aimed to develop a website for our alma mater.
After school hours, we regularly went to our computer laboratory to start developing the website. We had been working for 15 hours almost everyday from 4pm until 7am. We worked until other students and faculties had left the campus. Coffee, Gatorade, various junk foods and music became our buddies which kept awakening us.
We all know that developing a website preferably needs proficient designer. My brother and I can design but we are poor in recognizing colors. Red and orange seem to us just the same. Harney is always to the rescue to choose the intended colors. Not to degrade harney’s self-esteem. He is poor when it comes to designing. That’s why destiny made us closer for us to work harmoniously. We basically brainstorm when it comes to programming. We also let each of us to simulate different approach to come up with various choices to vote from. Sometimes we argue seriously. Defending one’s different thought that seem to him more efficient. But we always end up to a compromise.
All school staffs and our friends were optimistically expecting that we would win the competition. From about 100 schools who had participated the competition down to only 10 schools which had been chosen to step up to elimination round and entitled to defend their websites. Fortunately, the head quarters emailed our dean informing that we made to the top 10. We were astonished when this news came to us. We didn’t expect this to happen. Our friends and faculties started to congratulate us. But the competition was not yet over. We still had to show and defend the website to the panel of judges.
The day before the actual presentation, we deliberately practiced the flow how we would thoroughly present the website within a given time of just 15 minutes. We had to convey all features we had made throughout the website. I personally thank my father for being supportive and building our confidence up in preparing for that impending deliberation.
The time of deliberation has come. We were at the venue. We saw different contestants together with their coach and dean. They were preparing and glancing again their websites. They seemed look confident. We couldn’t stop our heart from pounding. We were trying to dissemble our nervousness for us to be perceived that we were confident. The place was too cold and my palm started sweating. Our nervousness depleted a little bit when we just knew that presentation would be done behind closed door with only organizers and judges inside. The organizer started to call us one by one to get inside the room.
To make the story short, all websites had been presented. Our nervousness had gone out a little bit but we still felt the pressure. The final verdict was about to be announced. All people inside the venue were excited to hear it. The 2nd runner up was called first (STI Taft). My palm was sweating more. There were 2 place left it’s either a champion or 1st runner up. To make the aura more exciting, the announcer had decided to disclose the champion. The champion was STI San Pablo and we just got the 1st runner up. The announcer said that our score was not too far from STI San Pablo, with just .5 ahead. We were not too upset. At least we still made to this place which other schools were wishing to.
We have learned a lot from this experience. This has become the way to gauge our persistence and step out of our comfort zone. Just give your best and be passionate and dedicated on what you do. Keep learning. Accolade comes naturally and automatically.
