Personal Narrative Essay

"Just because you fail once doesn't mean that you're going to fail again. Believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will?" -anonymous
Anybody can say "Get back up and try again" or '"Just have faith in yourself", but it is hard to actually do it. Over the past couple of months I have learned that if I believe in myself, it becomes easier to complete a goal. It is difficult and scary to try again after failing, because nobody wants to fail again. Building up the confidence to try again helped me to learn an important life lesson. Although it didn't happen overnight, I still had to try really hard to reach my goal.
Recently, I have learned that believing in myself is the best thing I can do. I compete in Scottish Highland Dance and

travel all along the East Coast for that. My dance teacher is very strict, but also one of my main supporters along with my parents, and best friend Maddy. Maddy and I compete against each other, which is hard for me because she usually beats me. From time to time I would become upset with myself because I didn't win. I thought that she would always be the one to win. She is a beautiful dancer and it is easy for me to compare myself to her because we are always with each other. We are very different dancers though, so usually it just depends on what the judge is looking for. When I compared myself to her it lowered my self esteem, and made me not as good of a dancer. This weekend I learned that I had to have faith in myself and just bring what I had to the table.
I was at Loon Mountain for the Highland Games.

This is a huge competition against at least 10 other girls in my age group. I knew that I had practiced but I was also so nervous because I wanted to win a medal against all of these other great dancers, including Maddy. As I was waiting to go on stage, I knew that all I had to do was try my hardest and be confident. Dancers came from Canada (very good dancers) and I had never beat them before. I had mainly just gotten fifth places at Loon, my highest placing ever was a third. I didn't watch my competition, so I went on stage kind of blindly, not knowing how everyone else was doing. As the dances past I wasn't sure how I was doing compared to everyone else, but my dances felt like they were going smoothly. As I came up my most dreaded dance (the sword) where you have to literally dance in and around 2 swords lying on the ground, I thought that I was going to fail, because I usually did. I got up on stage and tried my hardest and just gave a confident stage presence. After several dances past, I came up to another dance that I was nervous for as well. I messed up in the dance at my last competition, so I was scared to mess it up again. I knew that I just had to push through it. I did. As it came to awards I realized that I had danced nicely when they called my name for first place in the sword. I placed well in almost every dance. Everyone was so proud of me, but not as much as I was of

myself.
After the competition I have realized that not every time I'm going to do well. I also have realized that not every time I'm going to fail either. My mistakes shouldn't hold me back and lower my confidence, they should help me learn to become a better dancer. I feel like I'm more likely to do well if I believe in myself, because I'm really the only person who can affect the way that I dance.
Overall, I think that this lesson can help anyone. Whether you're taking a test or trying to make a goal, it is important to believe that you can achieve your goal. That confidence is what helps you to complete all of the things that you really want to do. I learned to not let fear of failure hold me back from believing myself and achieving my goal. Although I didn't win the trophy, I am still very proud of myself, because I believed that I could, and I did.