As I walked back to the en garde line, I could feel my heart pounding in my throat.

“You know what you have to do,” I thought to myself. “Pretend you are a bee on honey, just like coach says… stick to her the whole time… all you need to do is go forward… you can do it… just go forward, forward, forward…” I could feel my opponent starting her attack, but she hesitated, stuttering, not really finishing her motion. This was the moment, this was when I had to go. I flew forward, just at the right time. When I felt the tip of my epee hit, I stopped my action, stood up straight and saluted her. I shook her hand, thanking her for the bout. After the director motioned for me to sign the score sheet, I took his clipboard, scribbled my initials with a trembling, gloved hand and walked back to the end of the fencing strip in disbelief. I could not believe itÑI had just beaten a world-class fencer. A woman who had been fencing a lot longer than I had. A woman who was one of the top ten fencers in the world. A woman everyone knew I WAS NOT supposed to beat. And because I had, I was a World Cup Finalist, which is a rarity for an American womans epee fencer.

“Whoa,” I thought. “This is crazy! If I can do that, I can accomplish anything I want to.”

I was more excited about things to come than what had just occurred. I was ecstatic because I had a newfound confidence in myself. It was at that moment I knew that I couldnÕt give up on any of my dreams. I had to keep going no matter how hard it got. I had to keep going because this was just the beginning. Female epee fencers dont reach their peak until their late twenties, after they gather enough competitive and international experience. This was only my first World Class Senior level competition, I was young and inexperienced and had so much more to learn. I was still in college and didnt have the time to practice as much as I would have liked. There was so much more work to be done! “If this is how good it feels now, imagine how good it will feel to win something even bigger, to capture your REAL dream: to take home a medal from the Olympics,” I thought to myself. It was something I had considered, but only fleetingly. Until then I had never truly thought I had the ability to do it. However, after winning that bout, I realized I could, and because of that I had to stick to it like a bee on honey.