If life wasn’t full of second chances then would we ever be able to redeem ourselves? Nobody in life is perfect which means carrying out something correctly the first time is highly doubtful; therefore, life is granted with second chances. I was granted with a second chance to redeem myself at the World Federation National Baton Twirling world championships in 2015.

Four years ago I was competing in three different events at the World Federation National Baton Twirling Association(WFNBTA)  world championships in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Walking into this competition all I wanted was to win a gold medal especially since I won three gold medals at the world championships in 2009. There was one slight problem that I encountered the second day into the trip, altitude sickness. This resulted in my asthma flaring up which made it very difficult for me to catch my breath while simply just walking around let alone performing my twirling routines. I knew that competing that week was going to be very difficult, but I knew that I needed to push through and do my best just like any athlete would. Not feeling completely myself, I performed the best I could and earned two bronze medals in my individual events and one gold medal in my team event.
In the spring of 2015 I was fortunate enough to be given a second chance to compete at the WFNBTA world championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy for the third time in my twirling career. I felt as though this was my chance to redeem myself and show the world how amazing of a twirler I can be. Before I knew that I was going to be competing at the world championships for the third time I was worried that I wasn’t going to qualify because of how I performed at the last world championships. But when my name was announced as going to Italy to compete in three individual events and three team events I knew this was my time to show everyone what I can do. I had about eight months to train for one of the biggest competitions of my life so I trained as efficiently as possible. In the end my hard work and dedication paid off because I won six gold medals out of all six events that I competed in that week.

As I was training for the 2015 world championships I had a slightly different mindset than I did while training for the 2012 world championships. This time I thought that I was given a second chance for a reason because others believed in me and felt that I would be a great representative for the United States. In life all second chances should be taken and used to its fullest potential to prove a point to others and show them why you are where you are. I did this when I took my second chance and used it to become a world champion.