Winnie Jalet, age 11
Tappan Middle School
I was nervous as I got up to the block. Thoughts raced through my head like tiny race cars on a track called “my brain.”
I was at the pool in Carmel, Indianapolis. This pool was special. It was the pool where they held olympic trials. I had almost a year to practice for this meet and a week’s worth of tapering. I had worked for this. I had earned this.
I stepped up to the block, my body shaking like a massage chair that you see at the mall. I was nervous, wait, more than nervous. A bigger word for nervous that I didn’t even know.
I reassured myself, it was only a fifty breaststroke. “I’ve swam a million of these,” I said to myself.
The pool was where I worked my magic. I was a magician in a knee skin. “Take your marks,” said the meet official.
I stood on the block as still as a tree branch. I positioned myself on the block “GO!” I launched myself off the block and was ready for whatever would come.
