... And, Finally Back... (Continued)

With two weeks before the competition, I started to feel the pressure. A lot of, "What ifs?" were swirling in my head. I started to think about what other people do to help relieve themselves of the pressure, and prep for such events that involve performing. I really didn't know what I could do to help me.

On a recent trip to the dentist, I was told that I had a cavity, more than likely due to the gobs of gummy candy I consume in a week. I'm not lying about this, I swear I eat more in a month than a person should have in a year. Finally, it hit me, "give up candy!" That's it! I would give up candy for the next two weeks, and treat myself once I had finish my routine. It was a perfect plan.

Competition day is here, April 6, 2013, the moment of truth. Lisa  and I arrive at the venue, and they had set up a huge room for all the competitors to prepare, warm-up, practice, etc. Lisa and I spend our time going over some things, using the spare poles to practice a few moves. It was a pretty productive use of our time, and then the other contenders start to roll in. Oh crap! These women, beautiful, strong, talented... They started doing some fancy tricks in preparation for their routines. Lisa and I look at each other with this, "well, let's just go out there and have a good time at least" face. Ha, ha, we knew our routine was more dancey, and less tricksy, so this just reaffirmed our doubts, we were not winning this one.

I would've thought the nerves would hit me, but they never really came. To be honest, all I thought about for the most part was the huge stash of candy I had hiding in my bag. The candy deprivation really worked! To hell if we won this pole competition, at the end of the night, I still win these bags of candy. That's all that was running in my head.

Performance time! We get our call to head to the side stage, and we wait as this amazing duo are just killing, getting people to cheer and holler. It's hard not to look, but I try my hardest to divert my eyes from the scene, because I'm sure it would've just been a mind spank to see what they were doing. It's finally our turn, we go up on stage, in front of 300+ people, and do everything just like we practiced. It went really fast, too fast, I didn't even get a chance to process anything. There wasn't much clapping from the audience, yet I wasn't bothered by that. I'm getting my candy! Where's my candy??? Seriously, that's what I was doing, thinking about candy.

I get my sugar fix, and we get to breathe. We hang around the theater patiently waiting for the awards portion at the end of the night. I wouldn't say we were eager to got up on stage for the awards part, judging by the lack of applause we had received. At the end of the night, we finally get called on stage for the presentation of awards. Lisa and I find our way to the back, hiding our faces. They had two awards to call out that evening, a "crowd pleaser" award, and the big, champion award. The crowd pleaser award goes to the amazing women who went before us, and I could see why, they had the audience making noise the whole time. I heard they were killing it!

And then...