I woke up to my favorite part in my favorite movie. 8 seconds. It was the part where Tuff and Cody are sitting on the back of their van when Cody recites his new poem. “It’s called waitin' on Lane” he said.


“We been waitin' on Lane ever since we recall, started in April and it’s comin' on fall. We have us a bite. We have us a chew. We get us some shuteye we had us a brew, but somebodies wantin' a kiss somebodies wantin' a loan hes kissin' the babies or hes on the dang phone, but well keep on waitin' though we ain’t pleased cause the world champion bull riders got the van keys.” It’s just something about that part that makes me wish it could be my name in there some day. That’s when I realized I’m already living my dream. I was sitting in Gallup, New Mexico for the Jr. High National Finals Rodeo. I have been battling good riders all year. I have worked hard to get where I am today. I noticed my dad peering through the trailer door. He said “It’s time to get up now, Zane,” I rolled over so the light wasn’t in my eyes. I laid there in the bed for a couple more minutes.


“Lord, I love this,” I said. One last bull to ride and I could be a World Champ. I kept telling myself I just have to cover one more bull. Like that was gonna be easy! These were some of the rankest bulls I was going to have to ride tonight.


I got dressed and headed out the door in the New Mexico heat. I could hear the announcer saying, “It’s gonna be a scorcher today folks!” I made my way to the chutes to find my bull. They called the bull “Kiss Me”. He was a big ole mean looking bull. I tied my rope to the fence and locked up my rigging bag so nobody would take anything out of it.


After that I eased my way down to a buddy of mine Andrew Smith. We rode bulls together for quite a while before we made it to Nationals. I talked to him for a little bit, and then went back to the trailer to get some breakfast. When I was done, I went back to sleep for a while...



I woke up thinking I only drifted off for a couple of hours, I checked my phone. “Oh no!” I was supposed to ride in five minutes. It would almost take five minutes to get up there to the arena. My phone started ringing, Dad. “Hello,” I said.

“Where are you? You’re supposed to be riding in five minutes!”

“I know I know, I’m on my way”



I got to the chutes right on time. I throw on my chaps, spurs and boots. I'm all set and ready to ride, but I always say one last prayer, when I see the bull running up into the chute, it’s like sound just fades away. I climbed on. I started heating up the rosin on my rope like there’s no tomorrow.



There’s something about the rush of riding bulls I love, this little boy walked up to me and asked what to expect when riding bulls. I told him I expect the worse but hope for the best, because I don’t know if I’ll be alive tomorrow. That was racing through my head before I was about to nod.


When they open the chute it seems as if time almost stands still, it’s like you got everything you could dream of that’s wild and free right there in the palm of your hand. You’re not trying to break his spirit or nothing like that... anyways right when they open that chute, it’s like you’re trying to ride a tornado, your trying to figure out which way he’s gonna go and what moves you have to make, but I was aiming to stick to him like glue.



He jumped out there a couple feet and started really cranking it to the right. I was trying to counter every single move he threw at me. I put it in my head. Just don’t let go. If I stay on this I’m the new world champ. He was making big high jumps back to the left now. Then it was about four seconds and he decided to really jump up high off the ground and drop down a couple stories.



That’s when I heard the buzzer in those last few seconds everything that could go wrong did. I started drifting down into my hand that’s when I knew I was hung up.



I was getting slung everywhere kept trying to get to my feet and get up closer to the bull but I just couldn’t. I was hung up for quite a while and all of the sudden I felt my hand come free of my rope and I hit the ground in a heap, dust still flying I couldn’t see where the bull was so I got up and just ran to the nearest fence I could find and climbed up on. I was thinking to myself when I was up there I wanted to know how I didn’t get hurt at all. Maybe I did, I was just having an adrenaline rush or something. But nope, I felt perfectly fine. I walked over to the announcers stand and right when I was coming up the stairs they asked me. “How does it feel to be a World Champion?” “ Well it feels great, but I think the bull should be up here getting this award instead of me, but since you went and put my name on it so nice, I guess I’ll keep it.”



I didn’t feel any different from the day I had gotten there till now. But I sure did enjoy winning that award!!