Cristina Bedolla
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-3
11 March 2019
Tryouts
It was another day in the life as a seventh grader at Valley Middle School. I was constantly looking at the clock to see if it was time to go home. It was about thirty minutes to the end of school when my math teacher, Mr. Jarvis, started talking.
“If you finished your work, you guys may go outside.”
I got up and headed outside with my friends, who were in that class with me. Yvette, Arlette, Natalia, and I rushed through the doors and went to the swings. Before we knew it, Mr. Jarvis came out.
“ Are any of you girls interested in Cheer? The meeting is in the lunch room!”
We ran through those doors like we never had before. We walked to the lunchroom and thought “What if there are a lot of girls?” we came in a little late since. As soon as we walked in, there were a ton of girls looking at us, and there was the Cheer Coach. I swear I’ve never been so scared in my life!
“Come sit down, girls,” the coach told us.
“Okay, is this all of you? So Cheer tryouts start March 15 through 17 of 2017. We are looking for smiles, loudness, and sharpness. Hope to see you all there!”
Before I knew it, it was March 15 and I was so scared to be in that gym. There were a lot of girls who looked really good, and almost all of them had high confidence in themselves. My confidence wasn’t as high as I would have liked it to be. I looked down. My hands were sweaty. I was so nervous. When Coach Codi arrived, she told us to get in a line.
“Okay. I’m going to go down the row and each one of you have to tell me your name.”
She went down, and as we told her our names, she wrote it down on a notebook. After she finished writing all of our names, she showed us some cheer motions. That day, she also showed us two cheers we had to know. I was in that gym for two hours, and let me tell you, they went by fast.
The next day of tryouts, we went over the cheers we learned and did kicks and jumps. I have to admit, mine weren’t the best. When I got home that day, I practiced like never before. I looked in the mirror while I went over the two cheers until they looked decent. That night, I was so nervous for the next day because they were going to decide who would be on the team.
It was it the last day of tryouts. The last day, and every one of us were nervous. I was so scared to see what the results were going to be. I was scared to go out there and cheer in front of the judges. I was shy and, I was afraid my confidence was too low. I thought to myself, “why am I even trying out? This doesn’t seem like my thing.” All of us were in a line, and one by one we would go in the gym and cheer. I was toward the middle, and the line went by fast. Before I knew it, it was my turn to go in the gym and show them what I had.
I walked in with a nervous smile. I looked up and saw that the judges were Mrs. Hardy, Mrs. Grant, Coach Codi, Coach Kayla, and Coach Amber. I did the two cheers, and after I was done, I felt pretty good because I could just breathe.
Then Coach Codi asked me,
“Why do you want to do Cheer?”
“I want to do Cheer because it’s a sport where you don’t get benched. It’s a sport where you get to go out there and not be left out,” I responded to her and the judges.
I walked out with a smile, and not a nervous one. I felt proud of myself because I had accomplished what I wanted to do.
A while later, after each and every one of us went out there, we had to go wait in the locker room while they counted up the scores. It took about an hour, but when they finished, the Coaches came in. They looked pretty nervous, just like I did.
“Okay. This was a hard decision, but the cheerleaders from 2017 through 2018 are…”
“Oh come on!” I told myself as I closed my eyes.
“ Lexie, Morgan, Cooper, Cristina, Melissa, Kirsten, Arlette, Rosie, and Brianna.”
YESS I CAN”T BELIVE IT!!! I had made the team. I went home, and I was so proud of myself. Now, I ask myself why was I so nervous, why I so scared to cheer, but believe me, now I’m glad I did. I’m glad I didn’t give up, and most importantly of all, I’m glad I went for what I wanted.
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-3
11 March 2019
Tryouts
It was another day in the life as a seventh grader at Valley Middle School. I was constantly looking at the clock to see if it was time to go home. It was about thirty minutes to the end of school when my math teacher, Mr. Jarvis, started talking.
“If you finished your work, you guys may go outside.”
I got up and headed outside with my friends, who were in that class with me. Yvette, Arlette, Natalia, and I rushed through the doors and went to the swings. Before we knew it, Mr. Jarvis came out.
“ Are any of you girls interested in Cheer? The meeting is in the lunch room!”
We ran through those doors like we never had before. We walked to the lunchroom and thought “What if there are a lot of girls?” we came in a little late since. As soon as we walked in, there were a ton of girls looking at us, and there was the Cheer Coach. I swear I’ve never been so scared in my life!
“Come sit down, girls,” the coach told us.
“Okay, is this all of you? So Cheer tryouts start March 15 through 17 of 2017. We are looking for smiles, loudness, and sharpness. Hope to see you all there!”
Before I knew it, it was March 15 and I was so scared to be in that gym. There were a lot of girls who looked really good, and almost all of them had high confidence in themselves. My confidence wasn’t as high as I would have liked it to be. I looked down. My hands were sweaty. I was so nervous. When Coach Codi arrived, she told us to get in a line.
“Okay. I’m going to go down the row and each one of you have to tell me your name.”
She went down, and as we told her our names, she wrote it down on a notebook. After she finished writing all of our names, she showed us some cheer motions. That day, she also showed us two cheers we had to know. I was in that gym for two hours, and let me tell you, they went by fast.
The next day of tryouts, we went over the cheers we learned and did kicks and jumps. I have to admit, mine weren’t the best. When I got home that day, I practiced like never before. I looked in the mirror while I went over the two cheers until they looked decent. That night, I was so nervous for the next day because they were going to decide who would be on the team.
It was it the last day of tryouts. The last day, and every one of us were nervous. I was so scared to see what the results were going to be. I was scared to go out there and cheer in front of the judges. I was shy and, I was afraid my confidence was too low. I thought to myself, “why am I even trying out? This doesn’t seem like my thing.” All of us were in a line, and one by one we would go in the gym and cheer. I was toward the middle, and the line went by fast. Before I knew it, it was my turn to go in the gym and show them what I had.
I walked in with a nervous smile. I looked up and saw that the judges were Mrs. Hardy, Mrs. Grant, Coach Codi, Coach Kayla, and Coach Amber. I did the two cheers, and after I was done, I felt pretty good because I could just breathe.
Then Coach Codi asked me,
“Why do you want to do Cheer?”
“I want to do Cheer because it’s a sport where you don’t get benched. It’s a sport where you get to go out there and not be left out,” I responded to her and the judges.
I walked out with a smile, and not a nervous one. I felt proud of myself because I had accomplished what I wanted to do.
A while later, after each and every one of us went out there, we had to go wait in the locker room while they counted up the scores. It took about an hour, but when they finished, the Coaches came in. They looked pretty nervous, just like I did.
“Okay. This was a hard decision, but the cheerleaders from 2017 through 2018 are…”
“Oh come on!” I told myself as I closed my eyes.
“ Lexie, Morgan, Cooper, Cristina, Melissa, Kirsten, Arlette, Rosie, and Brianna.”
YESS I CAN”T BELIVE IT!!! I had made the team. I went home, and I was so proud of myself. Now, I ask myself why was I so nervous, why I so scared to cheer, but believe me, now I’m glad I did. I’m glad I didn’t give up, and most importantly of all, I’m glad I went for what I wanted.
Narrative Reflection Questions
1. List one thing you've learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like?
- I learned that if you put details it makes a story a bit more interesting.
2. Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you revise? What did you learn?
- I forgot to add comas and check grammar, but I learned that you should double check your paper.
3. What are the conventions of a narrative and how did you meet those in this assignment?
- Literary Devices where used in my story so was description, personification and many more.
4. Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it?
- If I had more time I would check my grammar and fix it.
5. What is one thing you're proud of in this paper?
- I'm proud of my paper other than grammar check I did pretty good.