There is a calm that overtakes you. The task ahead requires everything you have, all the savvy, every ounce of competitiveness, and every drop of confidence you’ve earned. Calm washes over you and replaces the last threads of realistic doubt with confidence. Your heart is beating strong. Your mind is no longer crowded with any thoughts except maybe one—the physical task ahead. Winning is an affirmation of your ability and has hardly anything to do with your opponent. You are certain. Any exhaustion, exasperation, frustration, resentment or fear that may have gripped you some other time has been shed in a fine sheen of sweat. What is exciting, what makes your heart pound is anticipation of your performance, the anticipation of demonstrating all you know, all your strength—you are going to live a little beyond yourself, beyond the person you were moments before.

Devin Mahony Harvard University