The Game Of Life
I walk onto the field, the blaring sounds of the cheering crowd make me feel like I’m in a different world. A world away from my family, my problems, myself and my low self esteem, and everything that happens in my life. I love this world, and I wish this was really me.

The announcer says the starting line-up; I start to get a feeling in my stomach of butterflies. One by one we step up in front of the crowd. He calls my name. I nervously move ahead. I look into the fans and I know they are proud of me. They have confidence in me, and are glad that as the captain, I am the face of the team.

All of my insecurities fall away and I am there ready to win, to show everyone who I really am and what I can really do. The team follows me as I walk up to the center of the field for my beginning spot. I stare at the referee as he fumbles for his whistle; I wait for the beginning sound to signal the start of the game. The game that is my life.

The referee starts the game, as I pass the ball to my teammate Kylie. Kylie starts to dribble and kicks the ball backwards to one of my team’s defenders, Josie. She takes a step, and passes the ball back to me.
I start to dribble and see the other team start to approach me. I make a move to fake out the player and start to dribble up the field. Then I pass it out foward to Olivia. She kicks it up and makes her way up to the goal. Sprinting like a cheetah, she kicks it, misses, and kicks it to the goalie.
Defeated, we get ready for the goalie to punt the ball up the field to her teammates. She kicks it up the field, and the ball goes to mid-field. The other team gets to the ball, and starts to attack my goal. My defenders stop her before she can look up and send the ball back up the field for another chance to score. My team mishandles the ball, and kicks it out of bounds.
As the other team gets ready for the throw-in, I look around to see the other team giving us the “evil glare”, and we know they want to win. You see, soccer is like life, people don’t like you, if you are competion to them, except in soccer, they let you know and do not try to hide it.
They take the throw-in, and pass it to their team. They try to pass it up to their forward, but our defense is unstoppable.
Hannah gets the ball, faces towards the goal, and starts to take off. Big Bertha on the other team glances over and sees her; like a bull she rages to her. Without any contact of the ball, she takes out Hannah and pushes her over. Mortified, we stare at the referee and wait for the call but none is awarded. Our goalie Kayla takes the ball and kicks it out of bounds so Hannah can get up and out of the field. I hear someone on the other team say, “Good job Bertha,” so I think number 27’s name is Bertha. We all leave our spots and help Hannah to the bench to make sure she is okay. We all give Big Bertha the “death glare”, and Hannah laughs. Sometimes laughter is the best thing when something awful in your life happens.
By the time Hannah is off the field, it is half time. We all huddle by the bench to hear about what we could have done during the half. “You guys need to start to push back. You can’t just let them push you around. They aren’t getting any fouls so don’t be afraid to do what they are doing. I’m not saying to completely take them out like that Big Bertha did, but don’t let them take control.” Sometimes, when life pushes you, you have to push it right back.
The referee blows the whistle to signal the second half is about to begin. We take our places on the opposite side we started on last half and get ready. We have to score this half, we have to win. Big Bertha starts with the ball and we immediately attack. Hannah (who has recovered) and I sprint to her and double team her. She looks up, doesn't even flinch and continues dribbling. We both meet her at the same time, and take the ball away. Surprised, she tries to kick the ball but instead kicks us and trips us to the ground. We get no call and so we get back up right away and continue our attack.
We spread out as I pass it to her. She does a move and passes the ball up to our forward Claire. Claire takes a step, looks ahead, and passes the ball out in front of the defense and sprints on to the ball. She sprints onto the ball and we can see the defense getting nervous as they try to catch up to her. This is Claire's one chance to score during the whole game and she knows that so she runs with everything she has and gets ready to shoot. She sees the goalie is moving slightly to the right corner so Claire shoots a low, left corner shot.
We all stare at the ball waiting for the outcome. The goalie dives to the ball and the crowd goes silent. It seems like everythings slowed as we wait to see what will happen. The ball moves across the goalie's hands and the ball moves across the line and into the goal.
We all throw our hands in the air and run to Claire. The other team is devastated. You can hear the crowd’s screams and cheers. I look at the scoreboard and see that there is still one minute left until the game is done. We need to play as defensive as we can in order to keep the other team from scoring. In this one minute they would be shooting everything and trying to score in the amount of time that is left in the game.
Ecstatic we get ready for kick-off. We stop our cheers and get ready for what the other team is going to kick at us. Big Bertha passes the ball to her teammate and runs straight towards me without stopping. She runs me over; mortified I stare at the referee. The referee blows his whistle and calls a foul on me. “Are you blind?” My coach is furious. The referee has just awarded the other team a free kick which is a chance to score. The crowd is screaming at the referee and we stare at the clock. 20 seconds left. The referee is not going to change his mind so we quickly get everyone marked-up, and make sure there is no one that can score.
Big Bertha is taking the kick and she looks like she is willing to kill someone if that means she will win. The referee blows the whistle, indicating that she can take the kick anytime now. As soon as she takes the kick the clock will resume.
Big Bertha backs up and sprints to the ball. We watch as the ball flies over our heads and to the goal. We stare at the ball as if it were a shooting star.
The ball goes to the goal and misses by five feet. The crowd goes wild. The cheers of the crowd fill the air. We look at the clock as the buzzer goes off. The crowd rushes the field. “We finally won! We finally won!” the crowd chants as they lift Claire onto their shoulders. We have finally won. We have finally won the game of our lives.
We went back to the school, after the game was done to celebrate our win. As we walked through the the doorway, we were screaming our chant. “We win, we fight, we’re dynamite!” We went to the cafeteria to talk about the game. As we stepped into the room, the sight of cupcakes, brownies, and cakes filled our eyes. Everyone must have heard about our win, and wanted to congratulate us.
“We played a strong game out there today. I know it sure was a battle and that was a battle we won.” We cheer as coach says her speech. “Claire, you sure saved us with that goal. It was an amazing shot you took.” We cheer again and start to high five Claire. “Our defense tonight was on point, and you guys did not let any pass. Good job girls, and excellent win!” Our cheers fill the room and echo through the school. That game, was the most intense game of the year and definitely the game where I got the most bruises but hey, we won.