Paradise is the feeling of no fear, no worries and absolute confidence. It can last forever or even just one quick second. For me my first experience of paradise was as a junior, on the high school basketball team. I was the captain and one of the leaders on the team. As the season played out the team began to gel very well. We were in a great position to make the playoffs for the first time in school history, and realized it at the time. The last game of the season was upon us. The situation was if you win then you are in, and in this case was the playoffs. When the night of the game came I had a feeling in my stomach that it was going to be a special night. The energy in the locker room was overwhelming, everyone screaming and jumping, Getting pumped up from the music in the room. Once the coach walks in the mood immediately changes, from happy to serious ” boys this is the most important game of your lives” he said ” leave everything you have on the floor, don’t leave anything behind”.
At that moment we go onto the area where the court is, pumped up from the locker room to see a gym full of screaming people. This was teh championship game for our team. If we came out victorious we would have made school history. The game to get into the playoffs was also ironically against our school rivals. The game was one to remember with leads going back and forth. With less than a minute to go my team was losing by one point. My stomach was churning I could barely breath fro the amount of energy I expended throughout the entire game. The coach chose myself and four other teammates of mine to represent our team and school for the last play. The drawn up play was for me to take the last shot. The whole seson was on my shoulders. Everything that this team worked for all season was now put into my hands. I had no fear, more like excitement once the ball was given to me. I made my move and once I went into the air to take my shot, everything around me seemed to have slowed down. I was in paradise at this second, nothing could stop me. No matter if the ball went into the hoop or not the road to this point was magical. In my mind this was my perfect paradise, being in the air knowing that you have beaten the guy next to you to the hoop and winning the game for your friends and teammates.