His eyes landed on me, and I froze. My mom and I had been walking down the street, and we saw a large crowd surrounding a circus guy. We had stopped to watch. Minutes later, he asked for a volunteer. My mom had told me I should raise my hand, and I did, not even considering that I could be chosen. The guy had looked around for a minute. Anyways, he pointed to me and said, “You! Come up here!” I slowly walked up, and all eyes were on me. I hated that feeling, of knowing that I was the center of attention. He asked me my name, and very quietly, I said, “Hannah…”

“Let’s give a big round of applause for Hannah everyone!” He had to yell in order for everyone to hear him. I felt my face turn red. I was really nervous. I wasn’t a fan of people staring at me.

He quietly gave me instructions for what I needed to do. “Since you are my assistant, I am going to need you to hand me the things that I ask you for.” I nodded my head, telling him that I understood. He asked me if I was ready, and I nodded my head, this time, nervously. I didn’t want to do something wrong! I would be embarrassed in front of tons of people! That was the last thing I wanted to happen.

He asked me for a lot of things. I thought that it was really cool! I was able to have an up-close look at what he was doing, while everyone else had to stand back. After I finished handing him things, he asked me if I wanted to help him with something. Of course I did! I shook my head excitedly, no longer afraid of doing things wrong. He told me to stay where I was. He backed away pretty far, then finally stopped.
As he was explaining what we were going to do, I looked around. It was beautiful out! You could tell it was summer because of the smell of the air, and the smell of flowers and pine trees. I heard him stop talking, and immediately turned to him.
“Do you understand what we are doing?” He asked me. I responded with a small nod of my head, just moving it enough so that he was able to see it. I was very excited to start. He tossed me a bowling pin, and all I had to do was toss it back. I thought that he might throw another one in and make it harder, but thankfully, he didn’t. I was getting more excited by the minute, but also at the same time, more nervous. I knew that I would drop the bowling pin, and sure enough, I did. I quickly rushed to pick it up. I tossed it back, my face burning with embarrassment. We tossed it back and forth a few more times, and I didn’t drop it again, which I was very grateful for.

He walked right up next to me. “Everyone give Hannah one last round of applause!” He yelled, so that the audience could hear him. “You can go back to your parents.” He said quietly to me. I nodded and walked away. I realized that the audience was still clapping and I suddenly felt very important, like that whole performance wouldn’t have happened without me. I looked around one last time before I lost myself in the audience. It looked even bigger than it had when I started!

I was still thinking about what had happened as I walked towards my mom. It had felt like no one was there except for the guy and I. It’s pretty amazing how people can feel like that even though you still know that there is people watching. I got to my mom. She was smiling very brightly. “Did you have fun up there?” She asked. “Yeah. It was pretty scary at first, but it was fun once we got started.” I replied.

“Are you glad I told you to raise your hand?” I took a second to consider what would’ve happened if I hadn’t. It would’ve been pretty boring to watch, I thought. I then said, “Yes, I am.”