As I stepped onto the stage my heart raced with excitement and determination.  The time flew by faster than anything else, and that’s because it’s my passion.  I stepped back off the stage feeling better than ever before in my life, my face was stuck at the biggest smile of my life.  Everyone told us we couldn’t do it, too many of our amazing seniors graduated and left us.  I have to mention though, everyone saying we couldn’t do it made us even more determined to win.  Yeah the seniors may be gone, which surely called for tough times, but that was our time when we proved ourselves.

            As I walked into the studio, the familiar stench of sweat and feet returned to me.  We began to work on combination after combination, until every step was drilled into my head so well that I could perform the dance in my sleep... As I lay there on the floor in puddles of sweat, I look in the mirror but it’s too foggy from the heat to even see through, muggy and humid air surrounds me.  There appears to be purple and blue colored spots all over me making me look polka dotted.  I look at all the splatters on me with blood oozing out, many scabs opened back up, new scars forming daily.  I thought about it, all these things that seem terrible are proof that I’m on the right track to where I want to get in dance.  I wanted to make a difference in my dancing this year, I wanted to progress like never before, so that’s what I aimed to do.   My team and I have already shared so many emotions together; frustration, excitement, anger, sadness, and the most common emotion we shared all the time was positively determination.  It was obvious we were starving to win, accomplish our goals and dreams.  Most of all, we wanted to prove everyone wrong and show them that we can win without the seniors.

            Mrs. Suzette, my dance teacher, wisely made a point saying, “Most teams out there have the technique down, so what’s gonna separate you from them?”

            One of my team mates replied, “We have passion and the ability to portray it through our dancing.”

Mrs. Suzette agreed, “Yes, so let’s do exactly that and make a difference.”   

That was the moment I decided I was going to push myself harder than I thought I could ever be pushed.  As the dance started, I focused on what passed through my mind as the song played and let that affect my every movement.  I let out all the emotion and technique I had inside of me and tried to focus less on the fact that I could barely breathe. 

Hours flew by, which turned into days that skipped by, which turned into weeks that passed by, then transformed into months that raced by.  The moment we were pushing for all year was here, time to kick some butt.  As I stepped out onto the stage, I saw my favorite view in the world; hundreds and thousands of people all focused with their attention to my team and I.  You couldn’t hear anything besides the music and nobody in the audience moved, that sent chills down my spine. During the performance of all 13 dances, I gave it all I got.  We came all the way to Virginia to win, not to have a good old time at the beach.  The moment I walked off the stage after each dance I knew we accomplished what we needed to in order to win.  Mrs. Suzette has the biggest grin on her face and seems to be mouthing the words, “You did it”. 

            “Yes! We did it!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. 

Now everyone must understand and finally believe us that we don’t need the seniors to be successful. We can accomplish our goals without them, that was the best I have ever danced in my entire life!  Tears of joy dripped down my face and I squeezed my team mates, we faced our troubles and accomplished our goals, life couldn’t be any better.