Ten years ago I won a trip to New York. If this happened today I’d delete the email

‘Ever since that day I’ve been convinced that you’ve got to be in it to win it. No doubt such belief has sold many a lottery ticket and birthed a fair few unexpected millionaires, so why shouldn’t it be you?’ Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Everyone needs a good dinner-party story up their sleeve. Mine? I once won a trip to New York.

I was 16 and, at the start of school term in 2013, I set out to make a short film for English class. I’d always been a film buff so it was, in part, a test to see if film-making could be a future career.