Blood Vs. Water Essay Essay

It all started when I walked into Island Coasts High School’s open house. I didn’t know what to expect, and was filled with trepidation about whether or not I would even know enough about football to sign up. I made my way to the cafeteria in order to sign up. I met the coaches,

After the best play of my backyard football career, Evan Knipp said, “Dude you should play Hawks football”. At the time, it seemed like the best idea ever. I thought that I would be the best player on the field, just like Tom Brady or Tim Tebow. That night at the dinner table I proudly told my Mom I was going to play football. Little did I know I would be regretting that decision three weeks into the eight week season.

One reason why I would allow my son to play football because it can build character “ it's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up”. You can play all day, and if you get down it don’t matter. What matters if you have the courage to get back up. “If you can believe it, you can achieve it”. No matter what you do, you shouldn’t have to put your mind into it, but believe in what you put your mind to and make it

As everyone ran to the field eager and excited to begin their freshman year of football I awkwardly stumbled along, following them as the field grew closer. I was scared, no; I was absolutely petrified. Never before had I played a real sport. Sure I played a few seasons on the city’s little league baseball team, but in my young mind, that was surely nothing compared to this. Tackle football: I had seen a few minutes of it when my dad and his friends watched, or when my friends played Madden 05’. Although actually playing was another story altogether; I was sure that my out of shape, chubby, fourteen year old body would collapse, and I would die.

“Do I really want to keep risking everything for this game”, “How could I possibly deal with a death on my team if I started coaching”. This introspection soon leads to other thoughts such as “Why do I play?”. And I start to piece it all together, in elementary school Football was the cool thing to do, especially in Texas, and my love for it began then, and from that point forward the dream was always to make it to the NFL. That’s when it would all pay off in my head, which is often the truth, but since only 1.6% of college football players make it to the NFL it rarely pays off.

Being a scrawny exceedingly short fifth grader, I was surrounded by other fifth graders that seemed to tower over me like skyscrapers. It was a Scorching, sunny, beautiful Monday: but more specifically it was the first day of the football season. The nerves in my body started to take over and almost felt out of place because small skinny kids don't play football, but my love for football exceeded beyond my fear and allowed me to give it a shot.

It wasn 't always easy living with my father, but I always knew he had my best interests at heart. When I finally entered Marymount High School, I had a burning desire to try out for the basketball team. Even though I was tall and athletic, my father wouldn’t allow me to get involved in sports. He told me a student who wanted to become a doctor didn 't have time to play games.

I stepped out of my mother’s car into the sweltering summer air. I was nervous and sweat dripped from my forehead. My mom walked me up the concrete steps and onto the track where the coach was waiting. It was the first official day of 7th grade cross country practice. I had no idea at the time, but this was the beginning of a journey that would help me to develop into who I am today.

It was a rainy Saturday night at the State Fair grounds. It was race night and it was one of the biggest races in the state. We packed up our soda, chips, and popcorn to head to the big race. I was so excited to see this race that I couldn’t sleep the night before. When we got there I say lots of people with jean jackets and jeans your typical racing attire. When we found our seats it was about race time and I was so excited I could hear my heartbeat.

Have you ever wanted to keep going even though there was a risk? Playing football was always what I wanted to do. I wanted to make it to the professional league and enjoy playing football. Then I hit my head and I had to modify my view on things. I had to let my dream fall back while I took on things that would last longer in life, like education, even though I didn’t want to, I did it because it’s the best for me. I’ll always be able to play football, but I won’t always be able to gain the same knowledge.

Sports never interested me much but my dad wanted me to at least try baseball when I was about ten or eleven. I detested the idea but I agreed to attending one practice to see if I liked it. Surprise, I didn’t. I loved it! Nothing gave me as big a rush as stealing home or hitting that rubberand cork ball clear across the baseball field. I was fast, faster than anyone on the planet, I used to think. I was unstoppable. Baseball was all I ever wanted to do with my life, I even wanted to go to college for free with a baseball scholarship and study marine biology; grand plans for a ten year old. But even that changed one fateful

When I first entered high school, I had no intentions of playing football. My friends who played pop warner had always urged me to play but I always decided to play baseball. One day towards the end of 8th grade I made the decision to play football. I remember the first day of weights during the summer, I was so nervous I almost felt sick. I knew a select few of people but had no idea how much I was about to change my life. When everyone reported that first day, we started off by lining up and taking attendance. I recall as I was standing there, an older burley man walked up and began to walk slowly past each one of us. It almost seemed as he was examining us like we were the “fresh meat”. As he walked by me, he looked me up and down,

I have been told “no” many times in my life but I will never forget the moment that I was told that I couldn’t play football anymore. I didn’t really mind it when I was first told but after a couple hours of thinking about it, I realized just how much I was going to miss it. When I went to the first football game of the season and realized that I was standing in the crowd instead of the field, I was pretty devastated. I wasn’t super good or anything like that. I didn’t have a scholarship or anything waiting for me either but it still hurt me to find out that I couldn’t do something that I have been doing my entire life.

I saw the boys start and I went to the one mile marker. The boys seemed to run by so fast that I barely had enough time to shout out and write down their times. When I was walking up to the finish line, I saw the first runner finish with an unbelievable time. The boys from our team came in with good times, but not as good as the girls. I then walked over to them to congratulate them on their times. After, I was done talking to the boys team, then most of us on the girls team frollicked around while we waited for the awards ceremony.

I was present on the September 16, 2017, the date of water damages occurrence at The Slayton’s residence. I was called by Ms. Slayton to help her with the clean-up. Upon my arrival, I entered through the front door and observed water and tissue paper covering the floors. As Ms. Slayton showed me the areas, water was above my ankle and it was still flowing from the bathroom into the bedroom, kitchen, dining area, hallway and living room. The water contained tissue, solids and a feces-like foul smell. There was no one there assisting with the initial clean-up but myself, Mrs. Slayton, Mr. Slayton, and the mother. No professional restoration or cleaning company was present during the time I was at the residence cleaning and bagging damaged