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I feel tears start to prick my eyes as all my good memories revolving around this football team flash before me.
I’ve been so excited about being a senior this year and almost being done with school that I didn’t really take the time to realize what I’d be missing when I was gone.
Heather wraps her arm around me. “Are you getting all sappy over here?”
I laugh and wipe my eyes. “Is it that obvious?”
“Girl”—she sighs as she shakes her head—“I know I’ll cry on the last day of school. I can’t even imagine what tonight must feel like for you, being your last football game. It’s been your entire life pretty much.”
I stop what I’m doing and turn to face her. “It really has.”
She gives me a hug, and I hug her back.
“Let’s hope we at least end this part of your life with a win!”
“We’d better!” I grin from ear to ear as we grab the rest of the stuff sitting around me and head back to where we’re storing all our things for the game.
All the cheerleaders and drill team girls rush out to the goalpost to get ready for the guys to enter. As we hold up our big signs for them to crash through, our signature music of “Back in Black” by AC/DC plays over the loudspeaker. Excitement rushes through my veins.
This is it.
Our senior year.
The last time I’ll hold this banner.
The last time the guys will smash through it.
The last time I’ll feel this love of being on the football field, where I can truly say this is my home away from home.
I blink away tears again just as the announcer cuts into the music.
“And now, let’s give a big Tennessee welcome to your Mac High varsity team!”
The crowd goes wild as the team rushes through the banner three other girls and I are holding.
A thrill you have to actually experience to fully understand races through my body as we join the screaming fans while black and orange smoke fills the air.
Once we have the pieces of the banner picked up, we rush back to the sidelines to take our seats on our signature stools that sit next to the band.
Nerves so intense that I can hardly breathe seem to cripple me as the ball is flung into the air with the kickoff of the game. In fact, I don’t even realize I’m actually holding my breath until the ball is caught and run back for twenty yards.
I jump off my stool, cheering my excitement that the game is finally underway.
We’re first to score, which takes some pressure off, but not for long. By the end of the first quarter, we’re tied 7–7, and I wonder if the stress of the game will slowly kill me inside.
The entire second quarter, no one scores with the unstoppable defense on both sides.
It’s our time to perform, and I’m thankful for the reprieve of nerves I get from the game that our performance offers. I know most people are nervous when they perform, but not me. The drill team has been a passion of mine for so long that I feel every move deep in my soul, telling me it’s exactly what I should be doing at that exact moment and I have nothing to be nervous about.
If only I felt that way during the actual game too.
I guess it’s the universe’s way of giving me my own yin and yang.
The guys come back on the field, and my anxiety is quick to follow.
When the other team scores, I feel like I’m going to be sick. But when Aaron rushes the ball in for a touchdown right before the end of the third quarter, I soak in the relief it gives me by screaming out of my ever-loving mind.
With very little time left in the fourth quarter, I’m officially done with all my emotions, and I start to wonder just how much more I can take.
