Personal Narrative Essay: The Experience Of Hard Work

My heart was pounding and my palms were slick with sweat from stress and nervousness. Today was the day that I found out whether all of my years of hard work were going to be rewarded. It was humid that day, but even more so than usual because of the recent bout of rain that we had recently obtained only hours before. I parked my Nana’s cobalt blue Chevrolet car in a space close to the front of the empty school that had been constructed a couple decades before I was born, and quickly strode up to the deathly grey front door where the team list was posted on the small glass window next to it scanning it for my name. There it was, my name, at the top and next to it was the title that I had worked and competed for against other girls. As soon

My muscles screamed from continuously practicing over and over again so that we would retain muscle memory, and my throat was as dry as the Sahara desert and scratchy like sandpaper from having to count out loud. I thought about giving up just so I could go home lay down in my big comfortable bed and rest so that I would quit having noodles for arms and my normal voice back, but instead I stayed. Friday was the last day of tryouts and we had to show the judges our basics and a mini routine we learned. Fortunately we were put in a group of four so that not anyone was left out, and we were going to go in the gym so that no one would be able to watch us tryout. Next we were told that we were going to be judged on three criteria: counting, smiling, and whether we put on a performance. For me personally, I had a hard time counting and smiling at the same time. I always managed to either slowly get quieter whenever I counted or I dropped my smile. Sometimes I did both and I would often get off count and mess up who ever was practicing behind me. At first I didn’t realize it, but then when I had figured it out, I wouldn’t admit it, but I was quite terrible. I was never capable enough to do all three at once, but to put on a performance I had to smile and count and spin the flag