5 years.

7 months.

1 day.

8 minutes.

All of these times together make up one of the best moments in my life; the day my DI team won regionals.

To most people, winning regionals doesn’t seem like that big of an accomplishment, but I’ve been waiting for the day that the announcers’ booming voice would announce that we would be going on since fourth grade.

                When my team and I entered the gym our spirits were high, but they were last year too. I had a weird sense of déjà vu and the little voice in my head was saying that it might turn out like it did last year—fourth place. I pushed this out of my head with our new found positivity that we chanted anytime we felt our worries surface.  I watched the little kids entertain themselves with beach balls and mini games of Ninja, wondering still if one of those shiny gold medals would be mine.

                Then randomly a voice came over the noise of screaming kids and Ke$ha to tell us that the ceremony would be starting any moment now.  Our team sat in the middle of the large blue mat and then the parade of banners from the different schools start moved around us.

                All of a sudden my stomach got this weird feeling in it and my head started to feel light; I was dead nervous. I thought that I had previously convinced myself that we had already won the competition, but now I wasn’t sure that our still newly formed team could win against teams like Vandegrift and Westwood.

                When it finally got to our challenge, I grabbed my teammate’s hands and hoped that we wouldn’t be called, since we would only be told who got the third and fourth place. Then, for what seemed like hours they told us the results—Westlake and Vandergrift. Two down and one to go, but that one was Westwood. The same team that beat us last year with their over-dramatic acting and quick thinking. This was a real life battle between David and Goliath and hopefully this time the underdog wins again.

                We were all sitting together watching all the other winners of the other challenges run-up with wide smiles and I hoped that we would join them as well. When it came to our challenge, I could hardly breathe, but I was side-tracked with the announcers’ voice saying that we had won the Renaissance Award. We ran up to the stage, to get our medals and were too busy talking to hear who won first. I knew instantly though, when I saw my coach’s face with excitement and the rest of my team yelling with happiness as they ran back up to the stage. We had won! We celebrated with hugs and yelling “We’re going to Disney World!” anytime someone asked us where we were going.

                I learned that day, that with a positive attitude can help you keep a cool head when you need it and it just might help you go to state.