About 15 years ago, there was a competition for the architectural planning of the Lutheri quarter in Tallinn. It was a competition by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, which meant tax-free prize money. The main award was 250,000 kroons (16,000 EUR). 

It was already the time when the architecture company where I was working with two of my colleagues Villem and Mihkel took its last gasps. We were already doing each his own thing, either paired with a colleague or completely alone. So three of us were sitting in the big empty office one evening, and we all participated in this competition. I did it together with Villem, and Mihkel did it alone. It was the last night before the deadline, and Mihkel finished his work, uploaded it to the server for printing, and went home. But Villem and I kept pushing until the middle of the night, when we finally finished and uploaded it as well to the printing house’s server. After that, we took two bottles of cold white wine from the fridge and started to drink it. Of course, we were tired, we had been working for a long time, and it was a terrible stress relief that we finally got the job done.

The night progressed, the wine was sipped, and then we had the “great” idea to download Mihkel’s work from the server to see what he presented. Just so that it would be a bit more interesting to drink. There we were, watching Mihkel’s work, and it was a lot of fun. We sharpened our tongues, commenting over his typos, swanking and boasting loudly. This funny sentence here and this strange house there. In the end, we also went home.

Time passed, the evaluation dragged on, and I was about to forget this competition until an acquaintance met me on the street who had been on the jury of this competition. He said tomorrow is the announcement, and we should prepare our spirits. That we should surely be there. Villem and I were entirely sure what the matter was and why we had to go there. We planned a free summer already as we were sure we didn’t have to work for months after this prize money came over.

So we went to the award ceremony the next day. Mihkel also came along to keep the company. I had not been in such a happy mood for a long time. Then the prizes were announced, and of course, it turned out that Villem and I didn’t get anything, and Mihkel alone won the whole competition. We didn’t even get an incentive award or something. Our work was just lying there, neglected, next to the wall. A complete zero. It became clear that summer is not free. On the contrary, Mihkel had a free summer and built a small house on the island of Muhu with this money. Our arrogance and mocking of Mihkel had received a just reward. We had summoned this upon us and we deserved this. Although we were of course disappointed as we had to work through the summer inorder to survive somehow. 

When I once told Mihkel about this story, he was utterly indifferent to our embarrassing behavior. It’s also easy to understand; he had got himself a house on Muhu island.