Never Give Up

• Jerome Mitchell, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

I look at the team photo and the vision comes to my mind. The best game of my life. I can still remember the joy that raced through my body. The football flying through the air, landing perfectly at my feet. I roll the ball in front of me and shoot. A left footer. We really needed this. A horrible 1st half. And now, even worse, we were two goals down. We could still win this. The ball flew in and smashed the back of the net. The sun beat down on it as if rejoicing it in some way. We can win this. We will not give up.

My breath heaved as I boosted the ball up the pitch to our right winger. No dropped heads now. We were back in the game. The thought of winning this match was coming out of the fog in my mind. Once again, the ball was whipped in to me. I shot again. Cheers erupted around the pitch. The ball sat peacefully in the back of the net, as if it belonged there. My team celebrated in joy. Though the job was not done yet. A draw was not good enough.

My lungs groaned in agony. My legs were telling me to stop. But I forced myself to go on. And soon enough, the ball was down their end of the pitch. I sprinted down the line, screaming to our right-winger for a through-ball. And there it came. Airborne, it skyrocketed through the sun, and it came to me. I whacked the ball like I never had before, leaning back and boosting it into the goal. We were winning. A hat-trick in ten minutes. Though, soon enough, the other team were back in the game. We were drawing. Again.

I couldn’t waste three beautiful goals and some fabulous teamwork. Then, with three minutes to go, the unexpected happened. A foul in the penalty box. A penalty shot. The whole pitch fell silent. Our right winger stepped up to take it. You could feel the pressure hanging in the air. But then, the field went up in roars of joy. We were in the lead. The last three minutes were pure agony, because our opponents were more eager than ever. But we were too. Only when final whistle sounded, I relaxed. We had won.

Hard work really does pay off. ‘Go hard or go home’, ‘no pain no gain’. They were quotes that I’d seen on sportswear advertisements, but now I understood their significance. If you want to do well, you have to work hard. That real joy of winning or doing well only comes if you give it all your best. I thought coming back and winning was pretty hard to do. There was one thing that I didn’t consider. I could do that one day. I understand now that when the going gets tough, you have to keep on going. That applies to anything. No matter what. Just never give up.