Sophomore Year

| 14 |

Normally, social life, school, and everything else work hand in hand for Gina. It's all a balance, but lately everything has been out of order. She doesn't know what to do other than attempt bury herself in her work.

Yara jumped and down, and swayed side to side—preparing herself to run. Gina stood in lane two as she glanced at Yara, who's in lane three she seemed so confident—why wouldn't she be, she holds at least three records. The second fastest 400, woman college athlete—in Maryland which she set in freshmen year. And let's not forget her newest records, fastest 500 and 800 this indoor season.

Gina really admired her work ethic. She wondered how she remained so focus all the time, and how she's practically perfect at everything she did.

"Under 65 seconds ladies, Yara you need to hit 60." The coach instructed.

Yara held her thumbs up, and nodded.

"On your mark... Set... Go!"

And the girls were off...

The sun seemed to be setting soon, curse daylight saving hours. Gina was lost in thought, overwhelmed with the situations that had unexpected events—main example, Malcolm kissing her. Although it was an innocent peck on the lips, it just wasn't right. In her mind, if she was focused on the right things, that situation would not have happened.

Is it wrong to just have remained friends with him—no. But he had to take it there...

Gina also wondered how to kind of—almost, maybe, find balance in all this chaos...

"Ready for our meet on Saturday?" Yara asked Gina, as the two strolled off the track.

Gina nods. "I'm anxious though."

"Me too!" Yara exclaims. "I don't know how many meets I've missed."

"Um, a lot... Let's just say that." Gina chuckles.

Yara sighs. "Well we're about to bring back gold medals, that's for sure!"

"Maybe..." She drags out.

"What do you mean, aren't you like top 5 in the 300?" Yara asks. "Well, I know for the 4x4 we're getting gold, because I refuse to lose."

Gina fake laughs. "I actually rank as eighth fastest for the 300."

"Oh." Yara smiles. "That's still good! Top 10, right?"

Gina nods, thinking to herself it's okay to seek out advise. Everybody, right now, has their own struggles to conquer, and it wouldn't hurt to have some type of idea as to how to decipher through them.

So she glances at Yara. "Quick question?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you balance everything so effortlessly?"

"Effortlessly?" Yada furrowed her eyebrows together, before her and Gina share a laugh. "Let's see, last semester I had two mental breakdowns and three questionable moments that I will never share with anyone—all the while I looked like I knew what I was doing?" Yara shrugged. "Honestly, if you're ever feeling drained just cry, and pick yourself right back up. Because ya know life's hard."

"It really is, having to balance track, and school, and band dancing—even though I haven't been doing that because of well everything going on. Making sure my GPA is good and my track career is going well. It's a struggle, sometimes."