Let’s rewind my life back to February/March of 2005. I was an eighth grader on the girls’ basketball team. This was one of the biggest games of the season for us. It was against our rivals. The game was neck and neck. The other team was shooting free throws to tie the game with only seconds left.  The coaches put me in because I am a powerhouse when it comes to boxing out and getting rebounds.

The other team made their free throws. We took the ball out and they were full court pressing us. We had this money press breaker it was called red (or green, I’m not sure but let’s just go with red). We ran the play, I had broken the defense and was standing wide open on the junction in front of the basket we were shooting at.

Our point guard had the ball, looked right at me standing all alone. The clock was ticking down quickly. She pitched me the ball, I caught it (which was a first, ask anyone on my team, I never could cleanly catch a ball) and turned towards the basket. I had a wide open lane for a left handed layup.

Left handed layups scared me a little bit at the time so I just pulled up for a junction jump shot. That was my money shot. My entire team was sitting on the edge of their seats as the ball soared through the air. When the ball went in hitting nothing but net the entire gym erupted. We won the game by two points.

I was floating. Before the game our coach said that in order to win a game you have to be 90% more skilled and a harder worker than your opposing team. The other 10% you need luck. After the game he pointed at me and said there was your luck. In my head I was thinking “that was not luck that was skill.”

That night the local high school had a basketball game. My dad and I were the only ones home. My older brother had a baseball tournament in St. George that weekend so my mom went down there with him. My dad was treating me like a goddess that night after my amazing performance at the game. He took me to McDonalds’ for dinner (apparently that is what I wanted but I should have been smarter and picked somewhere … good).

That particular McDonalds on that particular night was having a drawing that you had to be present to win and over 18 to enter. My dad entered. There were four people in the restaurant, our chances were high. Sure enough, they pulled out my dad’s name. We won a little 12” television (guess it was a good thing I chose McDonalds after all… free TV, who knew). We put that television in my room and it is still in my room today.

Let’s do a quick recap of the day. The two major things was 1. I was currently the school hero for beating our rivals in the big game.  2. We won a TV for my bedroom.  Also good things of the day, the local high school won their game that night as well. It even brought me joy that my mother was out of town for the game (it seems she is always misses the most historic moments in her children’s athletic careers).

I have had some pretty good days since then but I will never forget how I felt on that day. I have never had a day that could top that day. So for the last six years that day has been the best day of my life.  I don’t know if anything will ever top that. I hope someday something will top that experience. It would suck if my life had peaked at age 13.