Every dancer knows the feeling of rehearsing multiple times a week for months on end to prepare for competition season. And once all of the regional competitions are over, it's time to focus our attention on the holy grail: Nationals. While most people are laying out tanning on the beach or going on adventures with their friends, us dancers are in the studio having ballet class or running our numbers for the millionth time. Sometimes we reach the point of asking ourselves, why are we doing this?

I was finally able to answer this question.

My studio competed at Dance Xplosion's nationals in Wildwood this year. This competition runs for approximately a week and includes master classes, a pageant and an Xtreme battle at the end to compete the best numbers. My studio won many Xtreme platinums (the highest medal ranking), placed in the overalls multiple times and even got six numbers in the battle!

The day came for the battle, and we all piled into the convention center with our hair and makeup done, anxious for what was going to take place that night. We waited until it was our turn to perform, and then hit the stage. Of course it wouldn't be a good number if a few things didn't go wrong: people's costumes falling off while on stage, open safety pins on the floor and who can forget about those ridiculously tight wings and the possibility of knocking one over at any moment. Somehow we managed to survive the eight minute dance.

It was now time for the awards ceremony. Most of us have learned from previous experiences to not get our hopes up or to get too cocky. We all sat anxiously while listening to the competition owner recite the winners. The exclamation from the other dancers grew louder, the trophies got larger and our faces got weirder as we waited for them to possibly call our number. When they announced the first place winner, we all looked at each other in disbelief. There was no way that our number had won the Xcalibur. We watched another studio win the first Xcalibur and then there was one left to be given out. Could it be true that we won the entire competition?

We listened with bated breath to the owner while he gave a drumroll. A little snippet of our music began to play and within five seconds, my entire team was screaming and running to the front of the stage to receive our trophy. Everyone was crying, hugging, smiling and just filled with a feeling that is truly hard to explain. It made all those difficult hours in the studio worth it. All of the hard work we put in to preparing showed while we were dancing.

We all got souvenir t-shirts and took close to a thousand pictures with the trophy. But even though years from now most of us won't even know where that t-shirt is or have seen the trophy in ages, the memory of this night will be prevalent in our minds.

I couldn't ask for a better team to celebrate this moment with. It truly was remarkable to experience this with such an amazing group of people. Through thick and thin, we are all a family and I couldn't be more proud of where we have gotten. While I'm sad that I only have one more year left, I'm excited for what is in store. I will always love my EDA family.