It was my turn. Everyone was cheering me on, I kept telling myself “I can do this, I can do this, I can do this” but I still felt like it was impossible, like going to mars. I smelled my own sweat and the occasional stench of fear, I could have sworn I tasted the fear too. I could see the girl on the beam, she looked so confident. I could see the girl on bars, she looked so dedicated. I could see the girl on vault, in her run she looked so powerful and full of courage. I felt like I was in the gymnastics competition because I was but my mind wasn’t. I could see the people on the bleachers cheering me on but I still didn’t feel the same I did not believe in myself. It was only me and the big blue floor, nothing else mattered to me. Suddenly, the judge raised the green flag, I took one step and…

The day before we were in Albany for the first competition of the season. I was so excited and couldn’t wait, but at the same time I just wanted to go home to New York City. But I couldn’t, could I? I was sharing a hotel room with Piper. It was really small and on top of that our moms were in there too. I felt like I was in a tiny Afghan home, only we had two queen sized beds, and, a flat screen TV. It felt like the longest day ever, like time had frozen just to get on my nerves and that was making me more anxious to go home. The tick-tock sound the clock normally makes sounded more like, “tick………….tock…………. tick………….tock…………,”

You know the expression, time flies by when you’re having fun? Well, I think that there should be a new expression that should sound something like this, if you’re really nervous and or bored don’t sit around and watch a clock..

Finally it was night and all the worrying had been like a dream but now it was over and it didn’t matter any more because once the sun comes up a new day would start. But I couldn’t sleep, all I could think about what was what was going to happen tomorrow. I had some sort of vision, not a dream because I couldn’t sleep. But a day dream, only it was night. I imagined myself not in the competition but watching my friend Miranda. She did her floor routine perfectly and I was thinking to myself, what if my routine looked that good? We were all waiting for her score to come up. Finally, her score popped up and it was a….Grace wake up, wake up! You have to get dressed. We are going to be late. I rushed out of bed and into the hall. I had forgotten I was in a hotel room. My mom had to go out in the hallway to get me. Once I had my leotard on and had brushed my teeth I still had to do my hair. It took forever.

Then we rushed out the door like ragdolls or puppets on strings, anyway out the door we went. We all lunged into the car thinking we forgot something but luckily we had everything. During the car ride I kept going over the routines in my head. Normally that works to keep me calm but this time it made me feel worse. All I could think of was all the possible ways I could fail. We pulled up to the entrance of the meet and I was still day dreaming. I was the last one out of the car. I was so nervous. I wondered if I was going to have floor first and if I was going to be first, because if I was first I wouldn’t have anyone to help me overcome my fears and I really needed someone to help me do that. I was freaking out, thinking about what if I was first what would I do.

Piper and I bolted through the doors. Once our moms caught up to us we checked in at the front desk to get our numbers. They put numbers on our hands so they could tell who we were.

Sure enough we were late, they had already started warm up without us. We went through our warm ups on the floor and joined the other girls. We split up into Uptown and Downtown and lined up on the floor. (NYC Elite has two gyms, one uptown and one downtown) The announcer called out all the names of the other teams we were competing against. When the announcer called NYC Elite we all stepped forward and shook our hands like we were saying hi. We stepped back and uptown stepped forwards and waved their hands just like we had done earlier. We were separated into A and B, group A had bars first and I was thankful that I didn’t have bars first. And I was in B the only other event I hated doing first was floor because I was the most nervous for that. But what are the odds of to happen, what if it did happen I had to have a plan. Then I had a strange idea, what if I choose miranda to help me like I did in my dream.

We walked up to first event, floor! I couldn’t believe we had floor first. Atleast I wasn’t first, I was second. On the bright side Miranda was before me and she would do great like she always did(in my dream and in reality)all my friends in group B started to warm up our floor routines and our most challenging skills. Then the judge called us over to wish us good luck like they always do. After that Miranda stepped out on to the floor, the judge waved the green flag and she was off. But I had forgot to tell Miranda that I was really scared so she couldn’t help me. But now her routine was over and it was my turn.

The crowd was still cheering as my routine started.I knew I had to get my head in the game and stop daydreaming about what had happened the day before or the hours before. Each step I took, each time I got further and further into my routine the more confident I felt. I guess just watching Miranda helped me because now I wasn’t scared anymore. And the next thing I know I was done with my floor routine and I was really proud of my self. And for the rest of the competition I wasn’t scared at all.

THE END