As Jaden walked around a hotel he could not help but enjoy the amazing lights of the place on the ceiling. It was very fancy something I could not afford, but I am thankful I won a regional tournament with my team and we are all living here to participate in the USA national Volleyball tournament. As we went into our assigned rooms I could not help but enjoy the comfy beds in our place. At the end of the day, “we did not come here to relax or for sightseeing, we came here to win a national championship”. Our coach, Danny, finally arrived and we began talking about the opposing team for day 1. Nationals is a best of 3 game, single elimination tournament. If we lose the round we would go home and try again later during fall 2020. I was still in the hotel so I thought we all should eat pizza for dinner. The scenery of the buildings shining during the evening was amazing, I could not get our first game at nationals out of my mind. The shower’s were so refreshing and all we have to do now is relax and play to the best of our abilities. We took a van straight towards the gymnasium that we will be playing, I sat alongside my best friend and neighbor Jack. As I look at the distance from the window, “You ready man?” said Jack “Ready? Nervous or excited? Take your pick” Jaden chuckled. “Well anyone can be nervous before a big game right? But I am sure we all suffered enough losses just to get here. So why be nervous if you have nothing to lose already?” said Jack. “Does that even make sense?” said Jaden. “Hey whatever gets your spirit nerd” says Jack, Jaden chuckles “Yeah sure thing. Thanks.” We walked inside together and looked for a giant sized bracket in the front of the gate. We knew before where we were playing, but man it looked big. If I recall there are about 64 teams participating in a single bracket, put the two brackets together and you have 128 teams! Anyway, our first was about to start. We changed into our clothes and the team wore ASICS Men’s Gel-Rocket 9 Volleyball Shoes. We won the first round and second round. It was day 3 and it was also the worst day of volleyball players too. You not only need to play your round 3 game but if you win you have to play your quarterfinals game on the day 3 as well. I was nervous, we not only won our game but our luck was about to get worse. Our opponents were Fall’s 2019 champions. I knew it was going to be a struggle but thankfully Danny calmed us down and explained to us that this will be a struggle for them as well. “It’s not about flexing your achievements it’s about the effort you put into getting it. Show them how hard you wish to win. Show them how you do things back home” said Danny. Our spirits were high but our gameplay was low. We lost the 3rd set 28 – 26. As we all packed up our stuff from the hotel, we got on the van and headed home. It was a silent trip that night.