Personal Narrative: Stick It

I had planned on being a base and trying out as a base. One day Coach Ridenhour, the coach for the VJ cheer squad, asked if anyone wanted to try to be a flyer. I thought it might be fun to try, so I said that I would be interested. She put me in a stunt as a flyer, I was a little nervous because I had never done it before. As I was going up my heart started pounding in my chest, my fists clenched up, so many thoughts were going through my brain all at once. I thought I was going to fall, but before I knew it I was up and stable in the stunt! I could not believe I had got up there and did not fall. We tried it a few more times and each time I hit the stunt.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I completed my floor routine with ease! It showcased my best event and I nailed it; however, bars really created the pressure. My coach for the event was Coach Alex, and the determination I felt to make him proud overwhelmed me. I loved all my coaches, but he stood out as someone very special. I knew I would miss his constant nagging at me. I approached the springboard, enveloped with chalk and trembling from head to toe. I hit the springboard with such power it jumped backwards. My hands felt like fire as I spun around the bars. My hands released the low bar and after an eternity, I felt the bar again, but by that time I grasped onto the high bar. Before I knew it, I had finished my last bar routine with a successful

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

I was going to go! I promised myself, and my coach, that I would! I was really sweating, my face was seriously turning red, like I was eating a fireball! All of my teammates and coaches were all staring at me. I was so terrified and I felt like I was in the ocean with sharks surrounding me and going to eat me any second! “OK, this is silly” I told myself. ‘I 'm going for it!” I started to run in very slow motion and sped up, I started putting my hands on the ground and I could just see eyes staring right at me! I began to put my hands back, well they were touching the other side of my body, well very quickly lifting my body up from the ground and…… Finishing!! I could already see my friends coming to me and putting their hands out so give me a REAL BIG HIGH FIVE! Well my coaches were coming right after them! I seriously jumped up and down with the most excitement I’ve ever had! I was trying to get that for years I felt like! And guess what? I did it! Gladly,that was the last rotation before we got to go home! I was so thrilled to tell my mom

It was record breaking temperatures on this July 4th day. Red, white, and blue filling up the stands. Fans and umbrellas protecting spectators from the heat of the sun. It was about game time and I was getting ready to take the field for the last home game. Butterflies in my stomach, but I had to tell myself “it’s just another game”. Even though in my heart I knew it was not just another game.

Halfway I realized I wasn’t going to make it, I could still see the black trampoline tarp and the lush green grass beneath me. I stuck my arm out to break the fall for my face. I felt a crunching noise run through my entire body as I fell to the trampoline. As I lifted

There I was on the block next to the High Bar. It was about 5:00 at night when my coach told me to do a Kip. As I got up on the bar my nose filled with the smell of chalk. I started to swing, and as I came out of my half turn I looked good. Everything seemed fine but as I came to the part of the Kip where I have to pull my legs up to the bar, I slammed my shins into the bar. My momentum was stopped and I dropped on to the mat, missing the Kip. I felt like I had let down my coach and I had let down myself too. That day I experienced failure. That failure made me want my Kip even more so I worked harder and had support from my teammates.

I landed face first. As I collected the pile of papers scattered around me, I cringed and briskly glanced at the unfamiliar faces fixated on my every move below the narrow landing of the school stair case. I briefly questioned whether I was in a cliché high school film before I was brought back to the reality of my freshman year by a stranger who yelled at me to move so she could get to class. As I fumbled back up on my feet and trudged to my sixth period class, my thoughts lingered on the unsurprising nature of this turn of events. Only two weeks earlier I tumbled to the ground in the middle of a half marathon. This clumsiness was not a new development. My evident lack of coordination had loomed over me since childhood, memorialized by the

Thump! In a split second, I was lying on the ground. My head throbbing and my mind reeling. I had fallen from the high bars and slammed my head on the ground. I remember giving myself a concussion after that fall; I never wanted to get back on those bars. I had to do what I was afraid of despite the fear I felt in order to overcome larger obstacles in life.

Crash, I had split the beam . I was not ready for this. The nerves got to the best of me. I had fallen on my head , and gotten a concussion. I was doing my flight series which was a back handspring layout step-out. My hand for my handspring had slipped and my head went straight onto the beam. I was at my first meet of season. Beam has never been my strongest event. Thank god my coach was there she had gotten me up and took me to the gym medics. This was my last event too of the meet so then they said “the best option to figure out if my head is ok is to go to the hospital” they said this to my parents.

I was running to catch up with my team we were about to go on I was running late because I did not land my tumbling pass so I had to redo it. We have our team pep talk everyone is buzzing with excitement and we are nervous, my sister stands on my left and my best friend on my right we hold hands and jump up and down trying to calm down. I can hear the music coming to a stop and soon I hear the announcer “Let’s give it up for the team from Middleville Michigan!” Goose bumps run up my arm and the lights shine right in my face, I put on the biggest smile and get ready to start. I can never remember what happened during the routine, I was so excited and everyone told me we did amazing and everything stuck. As we run off the mat we are handed a trophy, and I grip it so tight that my knuckles turn white. Ever since I was little, it has always been my favorite part to see a trophy in my hands knowing I did a great job and I had fun while doing it.

At a young age, I moved from the country I was born in (Dominican Republic) to Miami Florida. Moving is not an easy thing to do, I had to leave all of my friends and family behind and become familiarized with uncertain place. I was surrounded by the unknown, everything was strange and so different to what I was usually use to. At the time I could not speak any English at all but that eventually did not matter to me, I slowly started adapting to my new environment and I became more positive. Although I could not communicate well and had a few obstacles I was very organized with my studies and kept very decent grades.

At that time I was young so I thought anything was possible if I put effort into it and continued. We were trying for about 1 hour and 30 minutes and my legs were like slosh from slamming my them onto the ground to stop me from falling. Regardless since Johnson had a free day that day he decided that we should continue. A couple of tries later I decided to just go down the slope one last time and saying in my head “I can do it” I began to fall one way but then began to slope up and there I was balanced instead of flopped over on the ground. I had a warm little tingle in my chest knowing that I had accomplished something big for myself but still needed to do this while peddling. I continued to practicing for a little bit longer to get myself adjusted to being balanced while pedaling at the same

I kept going as fast as I could, knowing my time was at least half way up. I flipped again and again, never stopping. I went and went. Forward, jump, back, jump, back, jump. Over and over and over. I eventually got high enough that I had to do a double flip. I flipped forward as I went up, and again as I went down. I barely made it before I hit the tramp. I bounced a few times to recover, then kept going, back, jump, forward, jump, back,jump, regain height, back, jump. I went on and on and on. I was almost out of time; I knew that. So I kept going. I had counted nineteen so far. I jumped twice, flipped, jumped, flipped. Then I felt the workers lowering me down. I managed one more before I was too low, and I kept jumping until was time to be unstrapped. I got off, a little wobbly and I walked to get my shoes and take off the harness. When I was done, I watched my sister, Alex, finish up. I saw her do five flips before they lowered her, one as they did,