A local resident, who participated in a particular essay contest for the first time, has emerged victorious, earning two gold medals, and his work will be entered for a national contest next year.

Bryan Oesterreich competed in the N.C. Senior Games Literary Regional Competition, held in Greenville a few months back. At that competition, his essays won two gold medals, which allowed him to submit them to the state finals in Raleigh, he said. He recently learned that the essays earned him two more gold medals in the state finals, facilitating his qualification to compete in the national competition in Minnesota in July 2015.

Oesterreich said he learned about the competition from hanging out at the Grace Harwell Senior Center in Washington where he goes to shoot pool most afternoons, he said. Though the competition covers a wide range of activities for seniors to compete in, Oesterreich decided to participate in the literary competition, which allows submissions of poems, short stories, life experience essays and other essays.

In the regular essay, Oesterreich highlighted a time he sailed on the Elizabeth II from Bath to Ocracoke during Bath’s 300^th anniversary celebration, he said. Scott Stroh, who was the director of Festival Park in Manteo, invited him to sail on the ship.

“It was actually really cool to be on the boat when they raise and lower the sails,” Oesterreich said. “I tried to have the readers experience what that feels like.”

For his life experiences essay, Oesterreich recounted his journey transitioning from being a truck driver to entering the field of teaching English, he said. This came about because of back problems he was experiencing.

“I had other choices, but I really felt pulled toward leading younger folks to writing and learning English,” Oesterreich said. “I always told my students about starting out in the blue collar trade and hurting my back. Teaching was less strenuous, but more rewarding. It’s been a crazy ride.”

Oesterreich taught English at East Carolina University for seven years and at Beaufort County Community College for 12 years, he said. During that time, he participated in a returned industry grant, a state project for educators to work in areas that would enhance their skills in their field, and for a summer, Oesterreich contributed articles for the Washington Daily News and feature articles for Washington the Magazine, he said. The experience made him more familiar with journalism writing.

“I had some fun doing it with them,” Oesterreich said.

Oesterreich said his involvement with the senior center, which sparked his participation in the competition, has allowed him to meet new people and those at the center motivate each other by participating in different activities.

“I’ve met a lot of new people at the center and they’re motivated by me participating, “ Oesterreich said. “You don’t have to be a young person to do everything there is. You can use your mind and have some fun and compete with other folks your own age across the state. It’s a win-win thing for me. It kind of confirms the fact that it’s nice to get friends and family complimenting on what you write, but to have the competition level I was at and everybody submitting work, it gets tougher the further up you go. To have outsiders from across the whole state think what I’ve done is worth something is really rewarding.”