Heart beating, mind racing, body shaking; I don’t know if I can pull this off. I watch the others go out there like its nothing, but to me, it’s everything. The frozen air hits my skin until imp completely stiff. My eyes are squeezed tightly, and I only try to replay my routine over and over again. My nerves approach me like a bullet, and I feel a strong emptiness inside. All the competitors are lions, just waiting for me to make that mistake, the one that will kill my opportunities. What if I forget a jump or move, what will I do then? I fix my dress, my arms covered in a black lace and my body suited in a smooth black silk, and I finally take a step onto the ice. Behind those dark blue curtains I can hear the last performer’s music end, and the loud applause of the crowd. Uh-oh, here it goes. The announcer speaks my name and I find myself suddenly starring through an intensely bright spotlight, at all my family and friends, and many others who don’t seem to even try and hide their exhaustion and boredom. Wiping the last bit of sweat from my forehead, I begin.

The music fluently sounds through the speakers, with the Foreigner playing one of their best hits, “Juke Box Hero.” I go along with the beat, just as I had before rehearsed day after day. With being as nervous as I am, I was getting into character and holding up quite well. I nail my sit-spin and completely over-take the ice rink. With a huge spiral, multiple of walse-jumps, and a quick toe-loop, the crowd makes a big cheer. Still very anxious, my leg makes a minor wobble, and I thought for sure I was going down. Yet I was able to redeem myself without the crowd taking too much notice. I know what is coming next; it took me all the way until today that I perfected the move. The axel, a jump that requires a one and a half revolution in the air and a precise landing position. It’s definitely the most challenging for me so far. I make a quick turn and imp backward crossing to gather a great amount of speed. Without it I won’t be able to rise as high as I need to. A rushed deep breath, a thousand thoughts, and I take a great leap into the air.

Turning and gliding above the eyes of all the faces, my vision is a blur. I feel a slight drop and I know im on my way back down. A sudden sickness flashed through my body. I hit the ice with absolutely no balance. Bam! My body hits the ground and im now lying sideways. My mind blacks out, and I seem to have no recall of all that just happened. I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and a piercing force in my left knee. My mouth feel totally dried out, and my thoughts appear to be somehow blocked. The spotlight gives me a dirty look as I sit there, clueless. People told me, “Break a leg!” In which in this case I feel actually did. The music is still playing, the crowd is still watching, I need to persevere through this situation.

As I look up, my eyes automatically glue to my family, all eagerly thinking their own individual thoughts in their head. I can just sense the doubt in the audience’s expressions. I meet my mother’s gaze and I quickly realize I need to go on, not just for my, but for the sake of all the people who came to see me perform when im well aware it’s not the most exciting thing. I place my hands on the ice, and with dreadful pains in my body, I struggle to get up. My ears hear “…He’s got stars in his eyes…” and I gather a little relief at the fact this whole situation only took action in the matter of seconds, leaving me an easy way to recover back into the routine. Remembering where I would be on the ice at this point in the song, I proceed gaining more and more confidence.

With an outstanding Lutz, it was it was almost as if I had never fallen. I paid no mind to my mistake and just kept skating. My smile remained bigger than ever, and my feet were sturdier then I could’ve hoped! One more move, the flip jump: Just take a quick rotating spin in the air. I get to where I need to be and nail it! The music comes to an end, and im breathing heavily in a nice bow. A small curtsy and I glide to the back of the curtains.

My face is almost completely numb, my hands are literally beat red, but my smile continues to stay upon my face. I remember my fall, and my expression finally dies down. My family greets me with a great embrace and bouquets of flowers, but with thinking about the fall, I turn away all the joy. I ask them how it was, and how bad I looked. I heard all their words loud and clearly. They did a phenomenal job convincing me otherwise, and my happiness arises once again. I mean, I know im not a Dorothy Hamil, but if I keep my hard work up, I may be able to become someone just like her on the ice. Skating sometimes seems scary, but to me, the risk is what keeps it interesting. Now that I picture all the faces and eyes that watched as I had fell sorrowful on the ice, I realize they weren’t making fun of me, but were doing what they could to deliver encouragement all the way from the stands to me on the ice. My mind may have saw glares, but my eyes saw the real faces. With all that effort into one of my favorite routines, I wasn’t going to let all those emotions keep me down.