Janye: A Short Story

I refused to ever let someone replace me on the track again. Not only did I earn that respect, I demanded it. My workouts were no longer a social hour, but a boot camp. I was the hardest working undersized athlete in the program. My junior track season finally arrived, yet once again I would not have the chance to compete for a junior varsity district championship. No, this year I competed for a varsity district championship. My efforts in the offseason led to a promotion on the team. The lingering emotions of anger and disappointment were replaced with gleaming pride. My previous failure had propelled me to success within a single

Yet life is strange. Once again, almost expected, I successfully became the tailender in my first track meet. It was a cloudy afternoon, I lied on the central lawn of the asphalt sport ground with my throat full of stifling anxiety and the taste of bitter blood. The soft grasses under me turns into a blanket of pins and needles when I heard other teammates passed by talking about their places in events, and I started to remorse bitterly about why would I humiliate myself one more time with the practical experience, covered my face with my blanket to hide my Buffoonery, till the coach

Last year I started a new sport, cross country. I only did it because my lacrosse coach said that it might help me get better for lacrosse. So I went to the first late summer practice last year to see what this was like, so then we did warm-ups and a lap around the track. Then it was the first time I met coach Chase, My first impression of him was going to be very strict, But soon realized that this was false because of one of the first things he said. He said “I know there are a lot of nerves here right now, but cross country isn’t about winning every race, that comes later” then continued with “Cross country is about showing what you can do to yourself.” This struck me very hard because I was not that fast and was near the back. Through that fall the team did very well, I also made some progress myself. After the season was over I made a decision.

From Janie’s narration we get to know that she does not have neither a grandfather nor a father, and her mother runs away in desperation. Nanny brought her up. Probably because of Nanny’s experience as a slave before, as well as both her and her daughter’s misfortunes, Nanny wishes that Janie can avoid the same fate by marrying a reliable man who can provide her with both physical and financial security. And Logan was that man.

We were out for vengeance, and as the first heat came to a close, the three remaining teams lined up. Our team was Brandon Reid starting off the blocks, Isaiah running the second leg, me securing the third, and Bawa trying to end the race in strong fashion. As I loosened my legs up, the gun sounded, and I watched Brandon get off to a quick start. Before I knew it, Isaiah was 10m behind me and was ready to pass the baton. As I grabbed the baton from Isaiah, I noticed I was a few meters behind a kid from Avon. Never, ever again I thought. My legs planted and exploded off the ground in a simultaneous motion. I was like a cheetah chasing after a gazelle. As the wind blew through my cleanly cut hair, I began to close the gap between myself and the man ahead. In the closing 20m, I tried my hardest to catch the Avon kid, but I couldn’t. As I passed the baton to Bawa, my heart sank. As my chin dipped to my chest so I could only notice the ground, I realized I did not run the fastest 100m. At the end of the race, we finished second behind Avon, again. My arms tensed and my stomach dropped. Losing to Avon was the worst possible ending to my track season. However, my head would be picked up by a more important event that followed days after the Founders League Tournament.

I approached that year’s conditioning with a pessimistic attitude and wondered why was I doing this when I’m not going to run in meets. Just like the year before, I assumed that conditioning and practicing would be obsolete. I braced myself for another disappointing year. Every winter day after school, I braced myself against the cold with a hope that this season would be different. I went into the first day of practice feeling in shape and optimistic. But just like freshman year, there was no preparing for the ache and suffering of the first practice. With the season approaching, our coach timed us to determine who would run in meets. Our coach divided us into groups based on how fast she thought we were. When a senior saw that I was in the first, slower group, he said that I belonged in the faster group with them. Hearing that compliment from a senior changed my outlook on the season might go. As the first track meet approached, we split off into groups so we could perfect our technique based on the event we were running. As I was jogging around the track wondering whether this year was going to be the same as last year, our coach summoned me over to perfect baton handoffs for the 4x100 meter relay. As the realization hit me that I was going to compete, I thought, “I’m not going to relinquish this spot because I labored profusely to attain

Lastly, Janie is a sexual women who grew up in quality of her nature and studied about sex and love from remaining underneath a pear tree and watching the bees spreading pollen. In this novel, it talks about how the land is not suitable to fulfill her wishes and make Janie pleasant in her marriage. The reader finds out further more of information of how Janie is intimately associated with humor in the way that she tends to counts the time. Janie's awareness is mostly described in ordinary terms. While, She waits a year before she determines that she is no longer happy women in her marriage, but she counts these months in phrase of the seasons: "So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when a the pollen again gilded

It was important for me to keep up the positivity at practice even though I had been feeling negative. Despite my feelings for the sport, I was sacrificing everything for my team so we could stay together. We had awesome practices where we got so much done and then we also had practices that weren’t so great. But each time, my girls pushed through. And then, soon enough November was here and it was competition season. We were doing full-outs, the whole routine, 10 to 20 times every practice and then fixing and cleaning up our technique in between each full-out. Each time, the full-outs became harder as we were using more and more energy. But still, we pushed through. The night before, I went to bed early to prepare my body for what I knew was going to be a very long day ahead of me. Sometime in the middle of the night, I received a text saying our competition had been cancelled due to the host school having a lockdown the previous day. We had to wait. After all of the preparation we had had, we were forced to wait all of Thanksgiving break and then compete. So, we went on Thanksgiving break and I tried my hardest to get my mind where it needed to be for the competition. When we returned from break, we had exactly one practice left before our competition. As soon as everyone arrived, I could already tell something was off. And that is when we were told that one of our girls wouldn’t be competing with us due to grades. I don’t think I have ever felt so frustrated before. I was in complete shock that she had done this to us. But we had become that team that could bounce back from anything and we didn’t let this get us down. We rearranged the routine. The day finally came for us to compete. All day, I was anxious, wanting my team to do amazing but also to win. When we got to the school, everyone’s nerves were on but I knew we had it. I could feel it in my skin. I could feel myself

In the year of 2017, the month of May was the upcoming state meet held in the lower south of Georgia. Being a 17 year old who is very arrogant about her work that she’s accomplished on the track. La’Necia was only weeks away from the biggest meet of her life, “crunch time” like her coach would always say. Practice after practice,pop off after pop off, and hurdle after hurdle knowing very confident that she was ready for the race. She thought to herself “there’s not anyone that can stop me from winning first place at this meet.”

While my brain was still in a pickle I could see the track in my sights. The scene was amazing, from the well nursed sand-pit to the clean rubberized eight lane track. Slowly nodding my head, I thought to myself “how a place I had trouble imagining could give off such a sense of comfort”. In admiration for the track, I still felt a little unsure; farther down the track I spotted Lentz, Jovon, and Campbell, who were two of my other close friends, walking towards me. We all gathered together and Lentz started talking about what we would be expecting,” So yeah I’m glad yall boys came for this work, you won’t regret; remember the overall goal getting better for ball but you never know.” The three of us responded, “Cool, where is coach?” He responded, “Chill he’s on his way, you’ll go through the same intro workout as me from yesterday.” Coach Huntley, a top coach in football/track showed up and wasted no time. We started off with all these intricate workouts and techniques that really pushed our whole body especially our legs; which lead up to trial runs in the sand pit. In my mind I thought to myself I’ve never jumped in a sand pit; I was eager. So using the techniques learned from coach we lined up. Being more of an observer I decided to go last; not knowing they would try to

The short story, “Janus” by Ann Beattie is a story that pays great attention to details. Beattie uses descriptive words to raise the awareness of the reader and point them to certain objects and characters that later serve as symbolisms in determining the meaning of the story. Although there are many details that help illustrate the main idea, we can identify three crucial details that perform a central function in stressing the meaning of the story. The first central detail is the bowl.

When Oly remarks that as Arty got stronger, Al and Lil wilted, it is a powerful message that explains the changing family dynamic. Within their immediate family, as well as their carnival family Al and Lil had always been held with the utmost regard. As Arty's act and fans grew, everything began to change for Al and Lil, as well as the rest of the family. Al was no longer in charge, and it was clear, that even from his tank Arty was running the show. There were many mornings when Al would go around to give orders, only to find out Arty had already been there. I think the hardest blow to Al's ego came from the hiring of Dr. Phyllis. Aside from the show, medicine was Al's biggest passion. “He was a masterly stitcher-“scarless wizardry, as he

I sat on my bed looking out my window, until something came whizzing by. I jumped off my bed with an awkward bounce and ran downstairs. As I yanked on the door handle, I realized it had snowed last night. “Too late for that,” I muttered under my breath as the door finally decided to open. I ran straight towards the object from the sky, and as I reached for it, something terribly wrong happened.

Janie attends Joe’s expensive, extravagant funeral. On the inside, she feels happy and relieved. On the outside, she puts on a sad, mourning face. As soon as she gets home, she burns all of her hair rags. From that point on, she wore her hair in a long braid down her back. Joyous with her newfound freedom, she realizes she hates her Nanny for how she raised her. She hated how she was raised and how she was forced to be married for no reason other than status and financial security.

“Siiiiiiiiiiiip siiiiiip.” The pieces of chicken from the caldo de pollo dangled from besides her nose and everywhere else. Her shirt was damped with chicken broth that had previously dripped from her spoon as she slurped. As she ate the next spoonful of broth, she brutally licked her lips in order to get that miniscule piece of rice that had escaped her mouth as she held the spoon close to her mouth. Gracie was poor and all her abuelita could afford was chicken, and today she had decided to make the chicken into soup. Gracie enjoyed her pleasant, warm food, but she had a different definition of “enjoying food.” Her definition of enjoying a meal was to eat a meal at any cost including using her hands and licking every single finger. Gracie