Even before I walk into the already packed bowling alley, my lips are drier then the savanna from nervously licking my lips. Mh heart pounds and hands shake as I walk in and I see all the older bowlers talking casually with one another.

They're all taller than me! I think to myself. I can't help but be nervous. I try to put on a calm act, but it's difficult. Even as I plug my ear buds into my ears. The music isn't so soothing as I thought it would be. Soon I have to put it up any ways, because they are about to put us down on the lanes. I take one last gulp before the names are called out on the intercom. When they call my name,it's like they're calling my name to be executed.

I didn't think it was possible to get more nervous, but when I saw the other two people on my lanes, I was getting more and more uncertain about this whole tournament. They looked like better bowlers than me, and that was freaking me out. I took another deep breath to steady me. The lanes suddenly roar to life and it's time to practice. I take one curious step forward and throw my ball, only to have it land in the gutter. I hoped it wouldn't all be like this. Also, I convinced myself, somehow, that it was just practice.

The 10 minutes of shaky practice was over and it was time for the real deal. The moment we were all waiting to see. The people who were coming down to take down our scores came and we were all set. I took my fate like a woman and went up to bowl first. The first ball only dropped five of the perfectly white pins, while the second only proceeded to drop two. My mom told me to calm down and that I've already got myself worked up, but she didn't seem to help much in that area of advice. I kept getting even more upset at myself.

The rest of the game was just roll once, roll again, and repeat. Not only was I doing bad, but I was doing horrible! The first game rounded up to be a 95. That was the worst game I had had in a long time, league or tournament. Amazingly, my second and third games weren't as nasty as I had expected them to be. They were my best, to my amazement, but I wasn't out of the woods quite yet. I still had my fourth game to bowl. My excited demeanor starts to fade away as I start to bowl as badly as I did in the first game.

Then it's over, just like that. It was probably my fastest game of the morning. The events after that kind of went like the opposite of a bowling ball. As a bowling ball would start of slow, then pick up in speed, the events were fast paced at first, but just as quickly slowed down to almost a complete stop. We still had to wait for my sisters to be done, while they announced who one over the fuzzy intercom. To none of our surprises, I didn't win and when my sisters were done, neither of them one either.

I ended up feeling stronger, yet still defeated at the same time. I felt stronger because this tournament was an experience, and it was just added onto all of the other experiences I've had. I hadn't really expected to win, but the way I had bowled today had kind of put me down, hence why I had felt defeated. All in all, as I walked out of the alley and down the escalator, I felt proud of myself for at least trying my best, and that's what it was all about, really.