My nerves made my stomach churn creating butterflies that fluttered throughout my body. This was my last show because I had an injury which made it hard and discouraging to dance and I wanted this to be the best show of all the performances that I had ever done. When I was on point it hurt greatly and, as a result, made my feet stiffen so I could not get all the way over on the box- the flat part of a point shoe. This was the second time ever that I was this nervous to perform and I forgot my steps. Luckily, I was still in the wings and could do over the steps but I did not have enough time to go over the whole dance, so I walked onto the black floored stage with a big grin on my face.

I was quite nervous now and there was nothing I could do. I bowed to the Grandma and Little Match Girl. So far so good and I saw them walk away off the stage leaving me all alone in a big black sea. There were hundreds of eyes staring at me to see if I would float and perform, doing all the steps and making them look carefree and easy or sink by scowling or pausing in the middle of my dance because I did not remember my steps. I was still smiling but as I started my first steps my smile started to melt. I was concentrating too hard on my steps to remember to smile and look happy.

Thankfully, I was remembering