In the short tale "Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen, the Emperor hires the swindlers because he loves wearing fancy clothes and a important procession is around the corner. These two swindlers promised him "the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or hopelessly stupid". Since the Emperor's ministers didn't want to admit that they could not see the clothes, they lied to the Emperor. Eventually, the Emperor lied himself too and as a result he went naked to the procession.
Gurl nobody's writing an essay for 8 points
Because people have morals and people have opinions
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.