My mind was boggling with so many questions that falling asleep was almost impossible. I had my first field hockey game the next day, and I was overly nervous. What if I let a goal in, what if I made our team lose, what if I wasn’t good enough, what if I just missed the ball? When it finally felt like I was in a deep sleep, Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. My alarm was going off and the day was finally starting. I quickly got dressed in my uniform and sprinted down so I would not miss the bus. When I got to the bus stop, it was a fridgid cold morning as usual. But this morning was special because I was proudly wearing my uniform. It was made up of my jersey and skirt. As soon as I got on the bus I could feel my heart beating still thinking about the game to come. I got to school and my captains gave me a ribbon to put in my hair. I soon learned from one of my teammates that it was a field hockey tradition to wear a ribbon in your hair every game. I was overjoyed that I got to be a part of that tradition, but I was scared, nervous, and trembling the whole day. Focusing in school was like a joke. It was getting closer and closer to the game. It would be 7 hours. 5 hours. 3 hours. Time was ticking fast but getting more relaxed about the game was not. The goal posts were calling me.

School was finally over. I went to my bus at a fast pace, I was bubbling with excitement! My curiosity, fear, happiness, trembling, and all my emotions just came up at the same time. As I got home and slowly started putting on my shinguards, sneakers, and jersey, my stomach dropped as if I was on a rollar coaster. My fear had come back and this time felt like it was bound to stay. My mom picked me up from my house and went through a checklist with me making sure I had everything. Mouthguard? Check. Sneakers? Check. Water bottle? Check. And then we were off into the game zone. Time felt like it was flying by in the car, although driving to the field felt like hours. I got there and walked slowly down the hill more nervous than I had ever felt in my entire life. Varsity had on music getting themselves pumped up. They all went on the field. As they went on the field I felt sick to my stomach because of how nervous I was about our game and how quickly varsity’s game was already going. That just means that my time was closer than ever.

It was twenty minutes into varsity’s game and they only had ten minutes left until halftime. I slowly started putting on my goalie equiptment and experiencing the chill and of course the thrill of putting it on. Time was ticking in my head and I was starting to freak out. “Thirty seconds left in the half!” screamed someone from the sideline. In thirty seconds I would be practicing in the goal. As the half time buzzer beeped, my heart felt like it jumped high into the sky. I ran to the goal and started flying back and forth to block all the balls my teamates were driving at me. Each ball that came near me I imagined it was a ball in the game quickly crawling to our goal. I then would stop each one as if my life depended on it. As I stopped each ball my ponytail was bouncing up and down, it felt as if I was jumping as high as a kangaroo. We then ran some more drills and soon enough varsity’s half time was over. Thirty minutes closer to our game. My team and I watched the rest of varsity’s game with our eyes darting wherever the ball went. All of a sudden the buzzer went, meaning their game was over. They had won. But I was going in goal in less then a minute and you could see the fear and nerves drawn all over my face.

My team and I quickly got in a circle and started getting pumped up.“GO TEAM!” was the last few words I heard from all my teammates. I stumbled to the goal in all of my equipment. The referees asked the goalies if we were ready. I slowly raised my hand up to show that I was ready; my whole arm shaking as I did. Whistle blew. The game had offically started. My eyes flew across the field watching the ball’s every move. The ball came crawling toward me and I kicked it out with all of my might. Soon after I heard my teammates on the sideline “Good Job, Alexa!” and suddenly all my emotions came pouring out and I was amazed how I did not let a goal in! Half time. We did not score a goal yet and everyone was mad. We worked so hard! Why would we ever want to tie 0 to 0? After half time we got back in the game more pumped than ever. As soon as all our feet sprinted on the field we got a goal and we were all thrilled! 10 minutes left. 5 minutes left. 1 minute left. The game was now over and the score was 1 to 0. We had won our game. I had not let a goal in. I felt like jumping up and down for joy, on top of the world! I jumped up and screamed “YES!” Quickly I then went down the line of girls from the other team and said “Good Game, Good Game, Good Game!” Telling the absolute truth that we both played a hard game and we were equally good. But I felt amazing that it was my first game and I did not let my team down and played my absolute hardest. My heart was pounding and filled with excitement. I had amazingly survived my first junior varsity field hockey game!