Someone once said, “People build you up, just so they can tear you back down.” Well, I do not know that someone, but perhaps sometimes you do not necessarily need to know a person before you can identify with them.
It was the second term of my first year in Wesley Girls High School, and for the past sixteen weeks, I had been tirelessly preparing for Dance Championship 2009. An inter-house based school program held annually at my school for the freshman year students. My routine for those sixteen weeks of rehearsal was intense. I spent approximately twenty-one hours per week preparing for this event. It was the hardest I had trained for anything; sometimes, I would even go without a meal for hours. If there is such a thing as the best and worst moment in a person’s life, those weeks were mine.
Finally, the much anticipated day arrived, March 21 2009. A mixture of fear and excitement bundled up in me. From 5:00am that morning to 7:15pm that night I had been rehearsing. What my trainers chose to call, “Putting in a few last minute touches.” As expected, fifteen minutes before I went out on stage, they were not done with the “last minute touches.” I was not dressed and to make matters worse, we had just found out that my music was not allowed since my school had a censorship on certain types of music. I was in a bundle of nerves as any normal person in my position would be and my trainer’s attempts to quell my fears, if anything made me feel like quitting, but I was not a quitter. I never had been, and I never would be. So when they called my name to get on stage, I went.
The long and short version of the story is I walked off the stage the saddest I had ever been up to that point in my life. I had forgotten my dance. Sixteen weeks of training and this was all I had to show for it. I asked God for a second chance, that if I got that chance; I would not let him down. Then it happened! One of the qualifiers was disqualified and I had the next best score. I had qualified. I had never been as determined in my life as I was that night; I had made a promise to God, and to myself, and I intended to follow it through. Most people believe that once you mess up badly, there is no way you can fix it. Turns out you can. I walked away that night, with the Dance Championship Crown of 2009.
Unfortunately, my woes were far from being over. For the next two weeks I had to deal with rumor after rumor and awkward confrontations with a majority of the school, because they believed I did not deserve to qualify, much less win. It is funny how people work so hard to achieve success and just one careless thought from a spiteful person can make them feel undeserving of that success, like all their hard work didn’t mean or deserve anything. I let my insecurities get the better part of me in those weeks and fell into a state of depression. I eventually did get over it, after much prayer and the support of some of my friends.
It has been three years now, and that experience still lives with me. I just wish I had known then, what I know now. Yes, it is true that people build you up, just so they can tear you back down. But it is only true if you let them, because people are just people. They cannot make or break a person. That power, thankfully, lies in only God’s hands. Most people talk about second chances, a do-over, but the thing is, if I did have the chance to go back and relive that day – the dance championship night. To maybe not forget my dance, so they would not make me feel undeserving of the win - just to get their approval – I would not. Forgetting the dance and the pain I suffered during those two weeks is not my biggest regret. My biggest regret is not enjoying the moment, when I won.
You need to remove the first "that" from the first sentence and I am not sure I would use the semi colon there. You have repeated yourself after you said about qualifying so I would change that.
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