And the crowd goes wild!!

Everyone should have at least one time in there life when they shine like a super star.

Mine was at FFA camp in the Adirondack mountains.

This camp is the coolest place on earth. They have all kinds of great things to do, canoeing, swimming, horse riding, cross cut sawing, and they also have a class on running a chainsaw, yes I said chainsaw.

Of course I had to take that class, sounded like fun.

During the first class the instructor said "I will teach you how to run a chainsaw so anyone who wants to enter the chainsaw competition at the end of the week can. This is open to both boys and girls.

How cool.

"Of course never in the history of the camp has a girl won, but you are still invited to try".

"Good grief I thought" why hasn't a girl ever won?, what in the hell could be so hard about this?"

"Count me in", I yelled I am gonna win.

silence from the instructor

Loud laughing from the instructor.

"Whatever girlie, you can try but it's a hard thing to do"

"Whatever "I muttered back

The camp lasts for a whole week. It is just the best time in the world. For the remaining 6 days while the other girls flirted with boys, I practiced with that chainsaw. While they went to a movie, I practiced. Any free time I had, I practiced.

You had to take the chainsaw and cut on a log, once down, then up , then down again. You are timed. Looks easy. You really have to concentrate.

All I thought about was that competition, all I talked about was that competition. I really wanted to win.

Really.

On the night on the competition, all the girls had made me signs out of cardboard to root me on. It was held at night with light shining. It was the coolest thing in the world to me.

They let the boy go first who was chosen to represent them. The buzzer went off and he cut the log. I don't remember what the time was, doesn't matter. When he was done, they put the time on a big cardboard sign and all the boys cheered.

My turn, holy crap this is scary.
Start the chainsaw, the buzzer goes off, holy crap I can do this, I can do this, holy crap. I was so scared to death, holy crap.

DOWN UP DOWN

turn off the chainsaw.

It seems like eternity. When they gave the time, it was shorter than the boys. OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!

The crowd cheered !!!!!!!!
Everyone ran to hug me, it was unreal, I actually beat those nasty boys. The instructor walked over to me and said "I can't believe you did it, you did a hell of a job girl!!".

That was over 20 years ago and I can still feel the excitement of kicking their asses.