Here I am once again. Another stage, another crowd. Except this time I’m right in front of the microphone. Take deep breaths Alexis.  I glance at the faces in front of me, some of them looking at us in awe, others clearly bored out of their minds. I take deeper breaths and sing louder notes. I open my mouth again but this time, nothing’s coming out. No sound. Nothing. Maybe this is normal. A few seconds pass and then the room starts spinning. What the-. Faces are getting distorted and the ceiling starts to blend in with the floor. This is definitely not normal. And all of a sudden in three-two-one…everything goes black.

I wake up to the principal’s mole and as I look around, everyone is looking back at me. I stare down and there’s a pool of blood on the floor. I’m hurried to the nurse’s office and immediately I’m put on the bed with an ice pack for my head and an ice pack for my chin. Turns out I was walking with my eyes closed like a drunk zombie and tripped on the microphone wire, causing me to fall. And now they’re telling me I need stitches.

To skip all the gory information, basically I stayed in school “bleeding to death” for three hours and then another half hour in the ambulance and another two hours waiting for my turn in the hospital. Finally the dreaded moment has come. Now imagine a blanket covering your face and while you’re awake, feeling every.single.needle. going through your skin. Yeah, feels great doesn’t it? I came out of the hospital with seven stitches and even to this day, I still get scared of microphones.