I'd choose this dialogue to revise your sentence: <span>“Did you hear?” I asked them. “My painting got selected! Exciting, right?” I smiled. “Especially given that I felt so incompetent at the beginning and that the competition was ruthless!” </span> It feels like the option that best uses the dialogue to improve this sentence, because the other options are either too informal or just the same sentence as the original one.
Extraneous means irrelevant or unneeded. essential means absolutely needed. so they are opposites. The other opposites in that set are mediocre (meh average) and extraordinary(amazing) D
