Should i be angry or proud?

i entered an essay contest in school a month ago in which i had to write a 500-600 word essay on who influenced hispanic culture the most. I turned my essay in the day before yesterday, and today my ninth grade spanish teacher kept me after cl to talk about me about my essay, she said that she wanted me to re- write the essay in my own words, i took it as "i don't think you wrote this" i threw in a lot of big words into the essay which might have been why she thought i didn't write it. I also posted a question on yahooanswers, which was "how can i make this essay sound more 9th grade-ish?" someone responded saying "i have a gut feeling you copied this off a website and thats just sad" but i did not, i wrote that essay all by myself the only thing that helped me where quotes from books i have read, a thesaurus and a cesar chavez biography book, honest to god. so should i be proud of the fact people don't believe i wrote it or should i be happy? p.s i want to be a journalist when i get older.