22:58
Tick,tick,tick,tick,tick.
23:02
Tick,tick…
23:15

I crossed that line. My time of agony was over. But had accomplished what I had set out to do?
The sky was a pale gray, chilly; perfect temperature. The ground of the Sunwillows golf course was soft; not mushy, but soft. Like the way a golf course was supposed to be. My dull 3/8’s spikes that I’ve used all season long would give me just enough traction. I wouldn’t be sliding and slipping around like tennis shoes at an ice rink.

I crossed that line and was the happiest person on earth. I had finished my race, I was out of pain, my legs could relax and I could take my place on the podium with my team who I’d been with through thick and thin for these past few months.

But we wouldn’t. A Christmas colored team had swooped down on our white wooden, black numbered, stair stepped shaped fourth place victory. My all wasn’t enough. My mind wasn’t where it should have been. I let a sly Lync sneak by my pioneer ground. Sneak in between me and my teammate.

My mind flashes back to the night before.

“You know how close our team is. You know that you guys have the depth and the training. You all know what you have to do” My coach had told us. And my mind goes back even farther to almost a year ago. On of our opposing schools that we had been above all season, stood on that podium ahead of us. Our entire team couldn’t stand seeing those all black uniforms. We all did not want to see that memory reenacted.

When you don’t achieve your goal and your hopes are torn down, your level of determination and motivation builds up. That moment was when I realized how I had failed at my task, my mind had become clear. We needed unity, we needed to be as a team; one. That was mine and my co teammate’s goal. To get our team together and gain what we have lost in the past two years. Some people couldn’t give it their all. Their minds wouldn’t let their bodies go past that barrier. Our minds have to be stronger than our bodies. That I was what I think went wrong on that cool November day.

Everyone fails at one point in their life; even if it’s just not getting a good grade on a homework assignment, or missing that winning opportunity at state. Big or small, everyone who fails wants to succeed; needs to succeed; yearns to succeed; and to succeed they will do anything and everything in their power they can to gain that success back.

As I walked-hands over my head, my breathing heavy, tag in hand on its way to be turned in- failure hit me. Hit me like a board knocking me down to my lowest level. And I knew what I had to do. Tears flowing down my cheeks like a dam wall had cracked. Even though I was disappointed and furious at myself; I was excited. Excited for my new task at hand. My goal seemed as far away as Pluto. But I knew that within one orbit of this green planet, my ship would sail past that tiny speck in space and onto a new world.