A Leap of Faith

By: Leigha Valandingham

“OMG! I am so stuffed I feel like a hippo!” I enthusiastically said to my favorite cousins. We all giggle, and then in the background of our laughter I can hear Uncle George say, “Let’s go everybody, get dressed for the game’’ I was so excited to play, I wanted to just go, but gladly I was all geared up for the upcoming football game. Nobody knew what rough and tough attitude was about to pop out of little ,petite Leigha!

“Okay, Antonio, Massimo,Nathan, Brandon, Lexi,, Lilli, Hayley. Makes one team. Little George, Grace, Leigha, Samantha, Ryan, and Taylor makes the other team. Uncle George shouted to us all , trying to organize us into teams.

Next thing I know I hear ,“HUT-HUT!!!’’, and my cousin Grace and I start legitimately sprinting to go tackle some big guys. I look at Grace and say, “Okay this is our new motto: Run, leap, tackle, Run, leap, tackle!!” We both snicker and start back in our ready position. The quarterback throws the ball and Grace catches it, she yells my name, and I yell,”I got your back”,and I go after one of my many family members playing the game. Next, Antonio has the ball. Deep in my mind I know I can’t conquer him, but on the outside I dare not show it, so I’m running, and I’m running, and then finally I am reaching out my arms, just getting ready to bust out like a ninja and pounce on him. Then, with my luck, he reaches out his leg, trips me, and I do some double flip, ninja roll move, and I’m laying on the wet, green, cold grass of the football field. I just laid there for about 8.95 seconds, and then I got up and I was just about ready to bust out of my shell. I had had it with my epic fails, so I get ready and determined to go, fight, and win.

Uncle George, our quarterback gives me “the wink” which means he is getting ready to throw the ball right in my direction. As I am standing there, leaning forward,, I can feel the heat on my face, my hands are resting on my grass stained legs holding up my upper body, my head is facing down but my eyes are looking up, I am getting ready, I am determined, the moment I have been waiting for for years. “LEIGHA!” I hear my uncle yell. Just as fast as lightning can strike, I bolted. I jump up in the air,I had taken my leap of faith, probably the highest I have ever jumped,and caught the football. As fast as my legs can carry me, I make my way, running, diving, and rolling through family members. Just as I pass the 50 yard line, I can hear little Nathan coming after me, yelling and shouting, as I am running faster and faster each millisecond, I make it to 80 yards, then 90, and then BAM! He is all monkey wrapped around my stained legs and I am falling to the ground. Just as I turn around to face punch the little 9 year old, I jerk myself back with everything I have in me. Everything.

I just lay there, my warm nose against the cold, dug up grass. I let everybody go to the side of the field that they are now playing on, and I just lay there saying to myself, “Seriously Leigha? You just let a little skinny and boney, shirtless 9 year old tackle you to the ground. Ever since you were old enough to remember this has been your family tradition to play this football game each Thanksgiving. This was supposed to be your year to rise to the top, to get it all, to reach your goals, and you failed” I try to stop mentally beating myself up for my loss, but I couldn’t help but let it get to me. I finally get up and try to shake it off, and just shoot for it next year. I am planning to continue the game without showing my anger towards Nathan, but as soon as I heard, “HUT HUT”, again, I knew my plan wouldn’t turnout to be a plan anymore. I ran, and I had my eye locked on one person, and that person was Nathan. I completely blocked out my peripheral vision and focused my eye on that devil child, not caring what direction I was running from everyone else. Finally I get to Nathan as I was wanting to, and the little kid tripped right as I was in mid air to karate kick him like I wanted to, so I’m in the air, and for the split second I was up there I am roaming through my thoughts thinking of what to do, because if I don’t think fast, this kid was about to be squash. The first thing that comes to my mind, is my gymnast moves. So I prepare for landing. I straighten myself out, I fly about 4 feet through the air like Superman, and I turn my karate kick into a gymnast dive roll. I land my hands on the ground, tuck my chin to my chest, and unexpectedly land on my feet with my arms out, like spiderman.

I turn around and look at Nathan, and I think, ‘’Oh Lord Jesus, he must be hurt.”, but when I get out of superhero position, the tough little kid is already up and running to go start the 4th quarter of the game.

Finally, the score is 8-8, the teams are tied. It all counts on this one last point. Set, hut, and run. Eagerly and fearless by now, I went to tackle my big fluffy cousin, who is about 200 pounds bigger than me, and is capable of probably smashing my lungs if things go wrong. I attempted to jump, but I ended up getting a piggy back ride. As much fun as I had had on that last ride, I was still so disappointed with myself even though we won with that last point. As we all sit at the field, I give Nathan a glare, he comes over to me, and hugs me, his little head right below my chin, as much as I wanted to hit him, I didn’t. I squeezed that kiddo so hard, he could’ve lost his life in the next 10.45 seconds. We walked away arm in arm, happy after my small loss.

I came to the realization, that I need to not let wins get to my head, and losses to my heart, because there is so many things that are so much more important than my success.