I could feel no pain.

I don't know what to say just yet -

I laugh instead:

This certifies that
Diana Gallagher
in recognition for
10th Place on Floor/Killing a Bottle
Has been selected to receive this certificate
The 19th day of April in the year 2008

wonderful friends - "SWORDFIGHT!" - their signs, their genuine smiles, their screams, their, "Screw it, you deserve this"

feelings move faster than feet as the temperature rises and lights hit faces lifted and smiling -

We are smiling but we are nervous.

My nerves finally ended - fell, in fact - 10th place on floor with a 9.3

I will always be too hard on myself;

I was smiling and I wasn't nervous as I danced, tumbled instead of thought - it was right - more than anything else will ever be -

I had worried that night, thought I didn't deserve this - yet I have changed from all of the changes this year - because I knew I was wrong.

I hadn't been smiling and I was incredibly nervous before I saluted to the judges - scores barely scraping above 9.0 for even the best Penn State girls, a balk on my whipback pass on the warm-up floor, starting floor on the first rotation of the first session of Nationals - who qualifies to finals that way?

Two weeks ago I smiled and simply couldn't be nervous, knowing that my body had been against me (it'd be bad if you fell on your rib again) and that my mind had won, knowing that six weeks before I'd fallen and groaned in pain and known that today, even if I fell, I could feel no pain.