I am dancing, everywhere you look there are red poms shaking. The Temptations are singing a medley of their biggest hits, and fans of the Iowa State Cyclones and the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes rooting their side. This was the 2012 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, which was the end to what would become the greatest event of my life.

At the end of my seventh grade year my dance company was asked to preform during the half time show at the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee! This was such an honor, but only kids ten and up were allowed to perform so that meant only eight out of our fourteen girls got to go and perform. The rehearsals for this big event were up to seven hours and started in June; we did not leave till December.

The video of the choreography did not even come until mid October. The choreographers were Bonnie Story, lead choreographer for all three High School Musical movies, Kelli Calvert, one of Bonnie’s daughters, and Bayli Story, another one of Bonnie’s daughters. Both in the High School Musical movies as back up dancers.

We put in over five hundred hours training and learning the routine for this event. Once the dance was learned, the costumes tried on, and the bags all packed, the last thing to do was drive to Memphis.

The drive to Memphis was nine hours; we stopped in Marion, Illinois as our half waypoint. It was so much fun because we met up with my dance teacher and her family and another girl on our team for dinner then went back to their hotel for swimming.

The next day we got up, ate breakfast, and then left for the four-hour drive to Memphis. The entire car ride I was either sleeping, texting other team members, or watching movies. It was one of the best car rides ever because my sister mostly slept, so I did not have to deal with her.

When we got into Memphis, we went to the hotel we were staying at for the time there. We waited for our dance teacher to show up, so we could check in to the hotel. The families were assigned their rooms, the dancers went running to them so we could hang up the posters we made to show the hotel that Priscilla’s School of Dance meant business. We had a rehearsal that night; we were waiting at the hotel for the bus to come to take us to the University of Tennessee for the practice.

All the other teams from our hotel had left, twenty minutes had passed and the bus was still not there. My dance teacher had the number of all the important people in her phone, so after like five minutes she was calling all of them trying to find out where the bus was, turns out they forgot that we had to get us so the sent a special bus for us.

We ended up being like a half an hour late for the rehearsal. It was so awkward walking in, all the other groups staring at us eight girls. When it was finally time for us to show what we knew to Bonnie, all I could tell my team was, “Go out there and show Bonnie what a real dance team looks like, show her what five hundred hours of practice does.”

Now I am a very negative person so hearing that come out of my mouth scared my whole team, but I was glad I said it because we were the only team to perform that did not make a mistake. Which felt amazing to show off to the other groups like that.

The next day we had an all day extravaganza, we had rehearsal in the morning and part of the afternoon then we marched in the Liberty Bowl Parade on Beale Street. My day started at six in the morning and should have ended at ten that night, but there was an adjustment in our routine and Ms. Priscilla promised Bonnie that she could count on our team to know all the changes so we practiced in Priscilla’s room until midnight. Getting to march in a parade was so cool, but it was also really cold.

The next day was the day of the game! We were all up and out of our hotels by 6:30 A.M., it was horrible since I was out till midnight the night before. When we got to The Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, everyone was in shock. It was huge compared to the gym where we rehearsed in just hours before. It was a turf field so it felt really weird compared to grass, and there were these little black pebbles things that flew up every time we kicked, jumped, or ran.

When the game started it also started to rain, we were cold, wet, and nervous. They had us go down about mid way through second quarter and wait in the tunnel. The only good part was we got to see all the cute college football players come in for half time.

It is now time to get on the field the stage is set, speakers are everywhere, and there are a ton of cords to who knows what. They have the dancers come out first, then the high school homecoming and prom queens and the marching band, and finally the 1960’s Motown group The Temptations!

We are all set on the field, the music starts, and the panic sets in. We make it through the first two dances out of five, then as we are waiting to start the third and my best friend, Megan, gets tripped by the camera cord and falls to the ground. She gets up and is ready to cry. I look at her say, “It’s okay,” and we start the third dance.

The entire routine is seven minutes and nine seconds, choreographed to five of The Temptations top hits. The first song is “The Way You Do the Things You Do” then, “Get Ready” followed by, “Just My Imagination” rolling into, “My Girl”, and finally ending with “Ain’t to Proud to Beg.”

Once this was done and over with my dance team was put in the local paper and we were local celebrities, we were also given many other opportunities. Without this amazing once in a lifetime chance I would not have had so many amazing opportunities that I am so thankful for. Because of this opportunity, I learned that hard work truly pays off.