I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock ringing in my ear. I rolled over to see the clock read 5:30am. “Uggghhh.” I said as I slowly rolled out of bed. I got up and put on my soft black sweatpants, white short sleeve dance company shirt, and my royal blue dance company jacket that had my name printed in bold white letters.

“Hannah, let's go! We are going to be late,” said Mom.

“I still need to do your hair and makeup.”

“Mom, I'm coming. One second!” I said.

I ran into my bathroom to grab my makeup kit and hair stuff. Once I had everything stuffed in my arms, I ran downstairs to my parents’ room. There, I found my mom ready to do my hair and makeup. I sat on a tall brown stool in my parents’ bathroom while my mom did my hair and I tried to do some of my makeup. When my mom was done with my hair, she helped do the rest of my makeup. Since today is competition day, we had to make sure I had lots of makeup on.

I ran to the backdoor, grabbed my tennis shoes and my dance shoes, and jumped into the car.

“Hurry, Mom! We are going to be late,” I said

“It's kind of hard to load the dream duffel into the car alone,” said Mom.

The dream duffel was my bag that I kept all of my costumes, makeup, hair supplies, spirit sticks, and snacks in.

Once my mom got the dream duffel in the car, we headed for the St. Charles Convention Center for the dance competition Diamond. Diamond was my favorite competition because the backstage crew was very nice and because I always did well  at this competition. We drove in the car for what seemed like forever until I finally saw the convention center. The convention center was a huge building with three large curved windows above the door that changed colors at night.

Once we were inside the building, we saw to our right a long table where you could buy pictures of your dances. To our left was an area full of dance clothing that had the competition name on it. Straight in front of us at the other end of this large room was an area full of long black folding tables. Pushed into the tables were black folding chairs that matched the tables. The tables were full of people eating a small snack before they had to perform. There were girls and boys of all different ages in their beautiful sparkly costumes.

When we were done looking around we went straight to the dressing room to get ready for my first dance, which was my solo. My solo was a high energy fast jazz solo that my favorite dance teacher choreographed. I had been practicing my solo for two hours each week for five months. I was so afraid I was going to get on stage and forget my whole routine.

Once I got my costume on, I found a long wide hallway that nobody was using and I started practicing my routine. I had my mom watch me and critique whatever she thought was wrong or that I could do better. While I was in the middle of my solo, my teacher came to tell me that there are only five more numbers until mine, which meant I needed to head back stage now. I gave my mom a big hug and headed backstage.

I had to walk down several long hallways that lead me to backstage. Once I was backstage, my heart started racing and I was so nervous. I tried to get all the nervousness out of me and just think that this was dancing for my family. When I thought about my family, it calmed me down almost instantly. There were only about four other girls on my side of the stage running their routines through their heads so they would do great. Right before all of the people before me went on I wished them good luck even though they were not on my team. My solo kept getting closer and closer. All throughout the routine before me I started to pick my nails and bite my teeth. I do this before I go on stage for every dance. I do these things when I get really nervous. Finally number seven hundred eighty eight had finished and now it was my turn.

“Number 789 Party,” I heard the announcer say.

I took a deep breath and walked on stage as confident as I could. I wanted to show the judges that I had the talent to win Platinum. The bright lights from the stage shined on me like the sun outside. I could feel the lazer eyes from everyone in the crowd on me. The clapping of the crowd made my heart race even faster. As the music started, I turned around and gave the judges a nice big smile from ear to ear. Finally the russian turns, the part I was most nervous about had finally came. I took a deep breath and with a big smile on my face I was turning right on time with the music. I had also did my russian turns correctly. I was so proud of myself that I couldn’t stop smiling. I continued my dance without one single mistake. At least that’s what I thought. I looked down in the middle of the dance for just a quick second to see what the judges thought of my routine. From what I could tell, it seemed like they liked it a whole lot. The judges were dancing and maybe even singing along to my song in their seats. Once I saw that the judges were enjoying my dance, that was when my energy was better and my smile was bigger than ever. I felt amazing up on that stage. I felt like nobody was watching me even the ones who try to put me down. When I finished my dance, I took a nice big bow and I strutted off the stage like I was the best dancer in the world.

When I got off stage, I was super happy because I knew I had done great. I ran to my mom who was waiting for me out in the lobby. My mom had a huge smile and tears of joy running down her face.

“Sweetie, you did so great! That was the best I think you have ever performed your solo!” said Mom.

“Thank you so much, Mom. That really means a lot to me,” I replied.

I went back into the dressing room to grab my company jacket to throw on over my costume. I headed out of the dressing room for the auditorium where the competition was going on. After a few numbers, I got up and headed backstage to be ready for the awards ceremony. For a time that was really only five minutes of waiting sure felt like five hours.

Finally the awards ceremony had begun and I was sitting very patiently to hear my solo number get called and what place I got.

“Number 780 high Gold. Number 785 Gold. Number 789 Party Platinum.” I heard the announcer say after about an hour of waiting.

I couldn’t believe it! Platinum! That was the highest my solo had ever scored. I stood up nice and tall with a big smile on my face. I walked to the front of the stage to claim my medal and pin to go on my jacket. The pin had the word Platinum on it and my medal read Platinum Teen Solo of 2017. I was so happy that the smile on my face could not disappear. After they announced all of the scores, they went into the top ten teen solos of 2017. I just had a feeling that my solo was going to be in the top ten because I got Platinum, the highest score you could get.

As they were getting down to the top three finalists, I started to get very scared that my name had not been called yet. I held my breath until they called my name for the first place position. My smile grew even larger as they handed me a trophy that was about half the size I was. They placed a crown on my head and put a sash on me. The sash read Miss Teen Diamond of 2017. I felt like I was on top of the world at that moment. Especially when I had hundreds of flashing lights shine in my face from several pictures. I had felt like I had the paparazzi following me around. That was until I found myself at home waking up to the sound of music in my bed.