As I thumped by the bathroom door I could understand why my nerve’s shot back up my spine. Today just had to be the day I had my first my first basketball practice. Underneath my heart pounding, I could almost perfectly hear the voices of some of my best friends, Caitlyn who we called CD she was short with average black hair she is the athletic one, Kaitlin J. who we called K.J. she was average height kind of skinny and she was the kind one of the group, Holly she was the wild one, she always was jumping around with her long brown hair flowing with her, ohh…and my big sister Toneisha she was the funny one she always left everyone with tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces. I was the cool one the one every popular girl was scared to come up to because they were either nervous like me, or just to cool to come up to a person like me. The only thing I could think at this moment was, “I hope I don’t make a bad impression!”


We all were kind of nervous but I guess I was the only one that everyone that showed it. I was the only one who was dripping sweat from my hands and forehead, I was the only one who wanted to go back, and I guess I was the only one who wasn’t in the bathroom. I think that was what told them that I was nervous.


I grabbed my bag and slowly opened the door. “0uch!” I said I was trying to open the door and bumped my head on the wall. My eyes were closed and my hands were shaking and now that the door was half way open I just wanted to turn back and run to a place far, far, away. I could feel the sweat dripping from my forehead; I guess my nerphibia was hoping it would get the best of me. I opened my eyes, wiped the sweat off my hands, and tip-toed to a stall hoping no one would see me. “Hey!” yelled one of my teammates. I slowly turned around, hoping I wouldn’t have to say much.

“Hi.”I said.
“So you’re on this team too! Maybe we’ll be good friends?” she said with a slight yell.
“Umm…yeah.”I said, and then upbeat idly walked to a stall.


As I put on my basketball clothes I started to think about how it would be like, “My first practice!” I opened the door of the stall to see no one there. I slowly walked over to the bathroom door that lead to the Boys and Girls Club gym where everyone was probably at. Oh no! Now when I walk into the gym everyone will be starting right at me. I slammed the bathroom door open and made a run for it. As I was running I tripped and fell flat on my face, the worse part of all!


After being embarrassed in front of all my teammates, I decided to join my team to stretch. They were just at the part when you stand up and bend over and try to reach your toes, and do a three count beat. After a while, we got up to start jogging laps around the huge gym. After we loosened up we started to introduce ourselves.
“Hi my name is Samantha-“yelled one of my teammates.
It had all come down to this my introduction if I said the wrong words they would say I was weird or not want to be my friend. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, hoping that I wouldn’t make everyone think I was a weird-o.
“H-h-hi… umm my name is-s-s” I said shaking. I mentioned to say.
“Hey! Its okay we all get nervous, just believe in yourself!” one of my teammates yelled to me from across the room.
“Okay. Thanks for the advice.” I said under my breath.
“Well my name is Renisha, and I’m kind of nervous because this is my first year playing basketball! I hope you guys will be my friend because I’m not that good at basketball.”
After we were all done introducing ourselves I started to think to myself. I started to think about why I was so nervous and if this year would be fun. I started to realize that it wasn’t all that bad.

Looking back on this, I guess it wasn’t all that bad and that it can be fun when trying something new it just matters how you take the situation! I guess what I’m trying to say is, when trying something new it’s normal to feel scared but it just matters how you take the situation. Even though I did take this situation a little to far I know now that the next time I’m in this situation I’ll know what to do.