This is it. We can’t do anything else now, our entire year is about to be judged by two performances.

The second we walked out from behind the long red curtains we were blinded by the stage lights. Terrified, we walked hand in hand to our spot on the mat. I whispered to myself “I can’t believe we are actually here”. We had made it all the way to Dallas to compete at Nationals and the end of our season was finally upon us. 

“Ladies and gentlemen please take your seats on the mat and face the awards in the middle” rang over the loudspeakers. I was so nervous and could feel through the hands of my teammates that they were too. All we wanted was to win and we were told that we had a chance. I knew that getting my hopes up would probably let me down, but they were already so high. 

“Silence please” the announcer introduced our division quickly, knowing that we were all anxiously waiting for our awards. “Best performance, best tumbling, best stunting,” the smaller awards were being listed out to prepare us for the big ones. “Best jumps overall goes to Mount Carmel Academy” the crowd went silent. How did we get best jumps when we knew that that was our weakest point? Each of my teammates looked at eachother with the same confused look, but we took it. Slowly we began to realize that we should be cheering. “If our jumps were that good then maybe the rest of the routine was even better!” Sophie whispered. 

I began to feel jittery and couldn’t stay still in my spot. Maybe she's right and we actually placed. What if we won the whole thing! Finally, teams were being listed off to get off of the mat as they had placed below the top 10. “Wait we’re in the top 10” I said as I realized the announcer had stopped listing teams. Once again he started rambling on about more teams who didn’t make the top 5, but we weren’t on that list. “Guys we made it to the top 5! I love yall so much” I heard from behind my back but I couldn't look away from the announcer. The air was so still in this moment that I could cut it. No one dared to move or speak. Please let us win, please. While the announcer fiddled with the awards I looked at my teammates and saw each of their faces pale and scrunched. We all wanted this so bad and we were almost there. 

Carly suggested we pray to ease our nerves so that is what we did. “Angel of God my guardian dear, to whom God’s love entrusts me here ever...” we were interrupted by the announcer. “Congratulations to all you ladies and gentlemen on the floor, once fourth place leaves will first, second, and third form your winners circles.” I think we made it! “And fourth place is... Mount Carmel Academy”. 

My heart sank. 

We did all of that work all year long for fourth place. This is so embarrassing. I was trying to hold back my tears but when I looked at my underclassmen teammates looking so disappointed I couldn’t hold them any longer. We stood up and practically limped out of the stadium feeling so defeated. “Good job guys I’m so proud of us” I heard from the front of the pack headed off the mat, it must've been our captain. 

Waiting around the corner for us were our parents. Seeing them made the tears fall down my face even faster because I felt like I let them down. “You were amazing honey. I'm so proud of you” my mom said. My dad wiped away the tears and said “I love you so much you looked great out there”. But nothing could cover up the sadness that they held on their faces because they didn’t want to see me feel so disappointed. 

Within the next hour my team was walking out of the building seeing the winning teams pick out rings and jackets. However, we felt content because we knew that each of us gave our 100% dedication and effort in our performances, and we couldn’t ask for anything more.