It was the first day of the nationals competition and I was getting ready for it with small group from my cheer team. There are two days for the competition, and at the end you add up the points from each day and see who wins. it was our turn to go on the mat and compete. I could barely stand still due to how excited and nervous I was. We were doing perfect in our routine and every stunt hit perfectly but when we got to one of the parts in the routine, it didn’t go so well. I was supposed to be thrown straight up in the air, come right back down, and my bases and back spot would catch me. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. When I got thrown into the air, I got thrown sideways and only one person followed me while I was in the air. That person was Sophie P. and thank goodness she was there. If Sophie wasn’t there I would’ve hit the ground very very hard and we would’ve gotten many deductions. When the routine ended, most people were very sad and or crying because we knew we didn’t do our best because, but we tried very hard. We eventually walked off of the mat with only one deduction out of both days that we were competing. We were sitting in a circle in the arena when we hear are team name being called for first place. We later found out that we were on the news and they were congratulating us. Everyone was crying tears of joy and hugging, not being able to process what just happened. It felt more and more surreal even though we have won nationals many times before, and that was one of the best moments of my life.