I stood as still as a statue in my beginning pose, waiting for my music to start. It felt as if the ice that I was standing on was shaking. I was so nervous, but I still kept a smile glued to my face to impress the judges. Then my music started to play, I took my first step into my program.
I had just landed my flip, great! But my program was nowhere near finished. I still had my two axels coming later, and those are what made me so nervous. I have my axel landed and consistent, but you never know what could happen at competition. What if my nerves got to me? You cannot really think about that while you jump. You have to think before the second you jump, and then just jump. If you did it right you’ll land it. If you did not do it right well, you know what happens. My program still kept going I was getting tired my legs felt like wiggly jello, but I had to ignore all of the aches and pains. I was coming to the jump with an axel, a lutz axel toe loop. I jumped and landed it! I felt half relieved since the second axel in my program was still to come. I went on, completing all the elements in between. Second axel? Check. Now all that is left is foot work. I started into my footwork sequence and as I was doing the twizzle I fell and saved myself by spinning on the ice. Then I finished the footwork and my program was over. The small group in the audience clapped and cheered as I stayed in my ending pose smiling that I had done it. I had skated a clean program.
***

I walked up to the wall where all of the results were posted. I found the sheet for Pre- Preliminary 2. I scanned the sheet; it took one second for me to realize I had gotten first! I was astonished I screamed not caring who else was around me. I skipped to the table where you get your trophy. They asked for my name and then after I responded and signed my name next to my placement on a copy of the result sheet, I got my trophy. My first place trophy was about a foot in a half tall. In the car on the way back home, I thought about how I did so well and how I had gotten first. It was all the hard work of intense practices. It felt good to accomplish that after working hard to get first.