"I'm a machine"

This journey has already been more than a blessing for me. I have been working since last October to make this team. This is my dream. To compete at UCA (Universal Cheer Association) Nationals. We officially broke into our three teams Saturday September 9. Our first practice was a bit shaky, many of us have never had a nationals experience, we don't know how we should act. We are learning quickly of what Coach Pat's expectations are. Monday & Tuesday I went to open workouts, which are going to another teams practice, as I was killing my legs running my two miles worth of intervals around the track Pat stops me. "Repeat after me" he said, "I am a machine." so naturally I repeated after him throughout the rest of practice he would walk up to me "What are you?" he would ask, and I was to repeat "I am a machine." I still have no idea what this phrase is supposed to do for me, but as Pat keeps telling us we must trust in him and the journey. For now i'll just keep repeating it. This weekend has been choreography weekend. Yesterday we learned the entire first music part of our routine. Then we started working on the first pyramid. It looks cool considering I can only see whats going on above me. I have the honor of being on the bottom of the pyramid alongside Molly. This morning's practice we spent the entire first hour marking our formations, going back and forth making sure each time we all had big smiles on our faces looking up at where the judges will be. Then for the next few hours we worked on our cheer. Me, Molly, and Amanda are the flaggets this year. We already named our flags, Amanda's is Charlie, mine is Marvin, and Molly's is Ulysses. We have some pretty cool elements in our cheer and if we get them its going to look amazing. The last portion of practice we worked on our first pyramid. My side went great we did the entire thing, besides getting up to middle layers the way we will, continuous count. We finished practice with a full out mark and working on our team stunt. So far this nationals experience is going fantastic!