Cassice Last overall winner of 2010 WORKING WOMEN COMPETITION

Whilst I clutched folders and a split bag and struggled to keep my balance on a careening bus, the phrase "life is hard" banged against my skull each time the driver swerved to narrowly miss a kerb. As the doors creaked and shuffled open, I tumbled off the bus and into the rain. Within seconds my soaked hair stuck to my head, which now ached with a defeatist mood. I settled my folders in the crook of my arm, pulled my useless bag tightly over them and sighed as my drenched shoes slapped against the pavement. I eased my soaked sleeve off my watch and peered at the time, late. Damnit! 

I stomped to a bench, threw myself upon it, and sat in pessimistic triumph as the water from the bench seeped into my back. Arms crossed and face set, I stared glumly into the grey traffic, surrounded by grey clouds and grey rain.

I leant my head back ...and saw a dark speck dancing high in the clouds. It pirouetted, swooped, dived and promptly missed the branch it had been aiming at. Silently, it twisted its body round, rose and secured itself to the branch with expert precision. A tiny sparrow. It looked weather-beaten with ruffled feathers around its torso and a wing held at an angle.

Barely anything to look at, I moved to turn my face away but it opened its beak and sang. This tiny bird's symphony travelled through the grey atmosphere, fought the glaring traffic noise and reached me, the notes sounding just as delicate as if I was standing but an inch away. Despite the bird's diminished stature and clear pain in its wing, the bird sang through wind and rain, finishing one song only to begin the next.

It would falter between songs, it shifted its legs and jumped as it tried to move its damaged wing, yet it would draw a rattling breath and sing perfectly once more. I sat transfixed at the bird's unwillingness to give up, my defeatist attitude shamed into non-existence, as the small sparrow drew itself up to its tiny height and delivered one beautiful clear note, and suddenly slumped off the branch and slipped to the floor. I rushed to kneel besides the bird in vigil, and saw a smile etched into its beak as if to say "Non, Je ne regrette rien."

Pictured above is from left, Daniella Robers age 14 of Chaucer Business and Enterprise College (winner). Cassise Last of Notre Dame High School and (Overall Winner) with her piece above, and Tina English Women's Enterprise Business Manager of Barclays Bank.

With special thanks to:

Barclays Bank for sponsoring the competition on International Womens Day 2010.

Faye Smith of Keep your Fork Training for creating the competition www.keepyourfork.co.uk

Jaquie Bellamy of Pixwell Pictures for all the fabulous pictures.

Fiona Firth of Sheffield STAR newspapers.