It was a bitter, cold winter day in 6th grade. I walked into the back doors to get into the gym; the snow crunched beneath my shoes. I had a basketball game. I was nervous but excited to play. When I walked into the gym, the smell of the gym and basketballs hit me. I could hear the squeaking of my shoes against the gym floor and the basketballs bouncing against the floor. We did the usual warm-up, and in the back of my head, I knew that my goal was to score. We then did the chant, "Tigers on three, one, two, three tigers!" I screamed the chant so loud to intimidate the other team. But this caused my throat to hurt.

I was always put in as guard because I was short. I felt instant pressure to yell the right play to have our team score. But after a while in the game, I got more and more comfortable with my team. I gained more confidence in myself to do the right play. I still had the pressure inside of me. Eventually, we were beating this team pretty hard. And everyone had scored a point beside me. I tried over and over again to get a basket in. The basketball would always hit the rim and bounce off. Every time I did this, I would feel very disappointed in myself. I tried to get a basket in but didn't, so many times. This happened so much that even the referee was cheering for me to score. We were close to the end of the game, and I just wanted to score. I knew I would be very upset if I didn't get a basket in. I also wanted my name to be called in assembly as "Keira scored 2 points in the basketball game." I wanted the upper grades to hear my name and be impressed. I raced down the court and got the ball. I threw it up, and it soared to the basket, and it went in the net. It finally went in through the net! I scored! My team cheered me on, and I felt pure happiness.

I knew that my team would always have my back. Even if it wasn't my point that won the game, I knew that I could rely on my teammates to cheer us up when we were losing or be overly proud when we won a game. Even after the basketball season, I never lost that feeling of a sturdy backbone and teammates to lean on. The whole Stanley Clark community has my back and everyone else's.