Nothing could be more devastating than the "clink" sound of my tennis racket string breaking right in front of my very own eyes. The white piece of string snapped off, flying in the air as I took a swing at the ball. The shattered string hit the blue hardcourt with a silent crash. I was horrified. Now what? 

Shortly before 4 PM, as we reached the end of our stretching exercises, the opposing school bus arrived in the high school parking lot. We began to set up the scoreboards along the sides of our tennis courts. I could feel the sweat beads already forming on my face as I tried not to be blinded by the blazing sun shining above us. It was eighty-nine degrees outside and the ice cubes in my water were losing their figure and becoming clear. We were serenaded by the melodious music coming from our high school band, who was practicing outside in the parking lot. The parents started to make their way to the bleachers between the courts. 

I glanced over to see the opposing players entering the tennis courts. We formed our lines and shook the hands of the coaches and formally met the whole team. This was it! I felt nervous but I kept saying to myself, “you got this!” I was at least four inches shorter than my opponent, who was almost six feet tall. He had dirty blond hair, a very neat appearance, and a surprisingly clean white shirt with their team written in blue embroidery. His tennis bag was huge and sat alongside his little cooler. He seemed to be very quiet and extremely focused. He wanted to practice serving first, so he took the ball and began. I thought he was going to fall backward as I looked and in sheer amazement at how he threw the ball up and bent about forty-degrees backward to serve the ball. It was truly a thing of beauty. He had poise and strength as he came down and struck the ball with lightning speed. All I thought about doing was dodging the ball as it came across the net. He walked with such confidence as he continued to practice his serves. 

I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck. Not only was it massively hot and I forgot to put on my sunscreen, but to top it all off, the strings on my racket broke during warm-up. I felt like I was rowing upstream without a paddle. I loved my racket. It was my favorite racket and I carried it with me to all the games. My Wilson Pro-Staff had brought me more victories than any other racket. It was black with strings, weighing about three pounds, has an oversized head, and was made for power and precision. 

Not only was it an awesome, lightweight racket, but it also carried a great deal of sentimental value. This was no ordinary racket, but one that has been passed down generation to generation. This Wilson tennis racket was the same one that my sister used when she played number-one singles on the varsity tennis team and also the one that my dad used when he played tennis. This was also the symbol of our family’s love for tennis, so carrying this tennis racket means that I was carrying my family’s tradition of playing tennis. We have so many tennis trophies and now it’s my turn to add to the collection and make my mark.

Although I wasn’t able to play with my favorite racket, I did my best. We started our match and I was down three games. It was my turn to serve and I served an ace then took two more points and ended up winning the games. I lost the first set. My opponent was a senior who had been playing off-season and was a USTA ranked player. It was not surprising that I lost the match, but I could not believe it when my coach came over and told me that the three games that I was able to win in each set would be enough to get us into states. The rest of the team and I were ecstatic. Even though I didn’t win the match, I was able to get our team to the state tournament! Now, I had one more chance and this time, I am bringing my old trusted friend with me, all restrung and ready to go. However, if for any reason my Wilson Pro Staff was to break again, I now have the confidence to face any opponent and know that my family was proud of me of what I did. I learned a very valuable lesson and that is to never use a crutch. This experience helped me realize that I can do anything as long as I am confident in my abilities and do the best I can. Now I know that the ability is inside of me and not in a racket or any other object.