Jason Thompson
Xiaoping Du
Composition 1 (Section 02)
2/14/2015
Time to Shine It was 5:30 in the morning on February fifth in the year two thousand. My alarm awakens me from an annoying half sleep. However, I hop out of bed with excitement, pack my bags, and head to school to catch the bus headed to Davenport for the district wrestling tournament. This is the tournament that decides who qualifies to participate in the state tournament, a dream of all high school wrestlers. My mouth is dry, my stomach is in knots, and mass feelings of trepidation come over me as I think about the weigh in. I stuff my headphones deep into my ears and turn on my music to help ease my mind of the anxiety. When we finally arrive at our destination, I look up and all the feelings of tension I have experienced so far disappear and it hits me; this is my time to shine! As we exit the bus and walk inside, feelings of intensity grow inside me. Seeing all the other teams and coaches enter the building gave me a sense of pride knowing that I am among the elite. All the wrestlers file through the scales and get weighed in. My teammates and I immediately head to the cafeteria to get a rejuvenating breakfast and some liquids to rehydrate before the tournament starts. Our coach gives the team some words of motivation one more time in an attempt to get our heads in the game. The district tournament consists of an eight man double elimination style bracket. I wrestled in the weight class one hundred seventy one pounds, so I got to watch three out of the six wrestlers who qualified for districts from our team before my first match. All three won which drove my excitement and motivation through the roof! Now it was my turn. For my first match I am wrestling someone I am very familiar with, as I’ve wrestling him multiple times throughout my career, dominating him every time. Even so, as we step on the mat, butterflies are fluttering in my stomach. The whistle blows and we are off. He puts up a good fight on his feet, but I controlled the action by getting a takedown and riding him out for the rest of the period. He wins the coin toss in the second round and chooses the down position. The whistle blows and it’s not long before I get an arm bar in and turn him for the pin. I jump up and feel a ton of weight lift off my shoulders. It’s a great feeling to get the first match out of the way. For my second match, I am wrestling someone that I’m not so familiar with, and this kid was no slouch. We walk on to the mat starring at each other with the look of determination on our faces. We engage in an intense hand shake and get into position. The referee blows his whistle and the match begins. We both work hard to get to the others legs for a takedown, but being very cautious that we do not give up position. This goes on for two minutes straight, and before we know it, the referee is blowing his whistle to end the period. I