Perseverance

“Are you nervous?” I was standing in the testing room with the girls from my dance group. I do an Indian dance called Kathak.  We were waiting for our teacher to show up so we could start. This annual test was very important. If we didn’t pass this test, we wouldn’t pass our year and be stuck in the same class again for one more year.

“Aashna, did you hear me?” my friend asked again. “Are you nervous?”  

“Um, yeah of course I’m nervous aren’t you?” I asked.

“Yeah.” It was quiet after that, then we started talking about other topics.

Our teacher came in and explained the test to us.

Then the test takers walked in and sat down. We all got in lines to start.

We started off with the questions and vocabulary which I did pretty well on. Then we started dancing. That was when the problem started. It was a very small room with a lot of people in it. So it did get very hot. And when it got very hot, people started getting sweaty. Especially me. So when we started doing a portion of really fast circles, I started to slip. And on the fourth circle, I fell.

When doing this test the grading is pretty strict. Falling like that is not a very good thing. One test taker mouthed “It’s okay” to me, but that made it worse. I didn’t want to be pitied. And the fall made me even more nervous so I didn’t dance as well as I’d liked to. But we got a short break for water and to relax. Then I got to calm down a little. When we went back in we had to dance for a little longer, then end with questions. I was the only one who knew an answer to a really important question. I was relieved because that meant my grade would improve. The test ended quickly after that. The dancers all gathered their things and filed out the door.

The entire week after that I was so nervous. I was zoning out in class and not talking much.

“Aashna what is the answer to number 17?” my teacher asked me.

“Um..” I snapped back to attention. “26?” I guessed.

“Well that’s odd since we are doing social studies.”My teacher laughed.

I shrank lower in my seat while everyone laughed.

Finally it was time for the results to be released. But when we got to the place our teacher apologized saying she had left the results at a different location so we would have to wait another week. That was horrible.

But again next week when we all showed up, our teacher had brought the wrong group’s results so we had to wait even longer. But after a few weeks, we finally got our results. Our teacher addressed our room.

“Before I pass them out I wanted to say I am really proud of all of you because you all passed your years.”

Everyone cheered and looked relieved.

“There is one student in this group though who did the best of her year out of all the academy girls,” our teacher paused, “And I will tell you who at the end of class.”

“No!” we all yelled but our teacher just laughed and left the room with her test scores and the knowledge of who did the best.

After practice we were all waiting and the parents all came in. Our teacher came in too.

“Well now I guess I have to tell you”. She explained everything to the parents and all the dancers were anxiously fidgeting.

“And the top student of her year is...” she paused for effect.

“...Aashna”

The room erupted in cheers and everyone rushed to congratulate me but I was in shock. Out of all the girls in my academy year  I had been on top even with me falling.

I guess what I really learned from this experience is never to give up and to always keep trying. After falling I could have stopped and just given up. But I kept going and in the end it rewarded me.