My Experience In My Life

Before school, I worked three days a week supervising the weight room as teachers and community members came to workout. Sometimes when I was

Soon after me, 14 year old Matt Leeks was getting my parents to take me to the gym every other day after school with my journal of data and facts I had obtained. Of course along this whole time period till now I had contemplated quitting

The gym has become my home away from home. Many people dread having sweat drip down their face, and feeling their head pound, as they run up and down a basketball court for hours upon hours, but I don’t. My friends and I spend hours upon hours in

"Physical education and health are the most essential classes because they are the only ones capable of lengthening one's life through establishing habits of healthy living." Upon overhearing my high school gym and health teacher state this, I began to consider how the statement relates to my identity as an athlete. Also, I smiled and thought to myself, "I can't wait to tell my mom what he just said! Now I can support my love for gym class and dreadful attitude toward other courses." Throughout my life, the term "athletic" consistently has been used to describe me. From the age of seven to thirteen, my brothers and I attended a summer camp, called Crossroads. Incorporated within the eight-hour day was snack time, choice time, lunch time, a biblical lesson, song singing, small groups, and a sports session. Before the day officially began, during choice time, and the sports session, I delighted in playing sports and competing alongside peers and counselors. At the end of our last ever day of camp, the counselors held an impromptu graduation where they handed out some awards and displayed their gratitude for witnessing our growth and contributions over the years.

As a child, I was never being sporty rather I was an unfit boy like many other of my age. I hated to be unfit- I never got picked for any sports teams. During my teenage years to keep with societies ideal I tried every fitness options I came cross to become fit and smart. While probably due to inspiration from dad and brothers that I became interested in going to a gym. This is how started to have an interest in gym life. At this stage, I was no regular to gym, or wasn’t fit, neither sporty. I didn’t have a figure, but I soon realized that I enjoy the ‘buzz’ which exercising gave me. Now there is no looking back.

When I walked through the entrance, my expectations were not that I would find a new start, new friends, or a new me. Little did I know, that would be exactly what happened. Joining the gym was less out of interest or want, but instead to fulfill the physical education requirement for my homeschooling curriculum. I entered as someone who was full of with pain, doubt, and fear; I exited filled with love, strength, and hope.

For the majority of my life I have belonged in the little world, stretching from Chicago to Cleveland and South Bend to Nashville. The boundaries of my known world have always felt like a limiting factor in my life. While my friends ventured to far away lands every year, I would spend the night at my grandparents house or we would make a day-trip to a city. With spring break approaching my family and I were going to change that, we were going to South Carolina.

Well, where do i start? The environment i grew up in was not a fun one. I was born in San Antonio and lived in Boerne until i was about 7-8 months old. My grandparents then bought a 15 acre property in Harper. We then lived there, and still live there today. I started school in Harper Elementary. Mrs. Payne was my Pre-k teacher. She helped me alot in that year. She sent me home with books because i was already reading. Throughout my elementary years i was a good smart kid. I had a few bad times but i was a good kid. I played baseball with a lot of kids that still go to this school. Baseball was my life. I loves playing it. I still do. Around my 1st grade year is when my parents started having problems. When i was 8 years old, the summer before my 2nd grade year, my parents got divorced. Elizabeth, my mother, took me and my sister chloe and we lived in Heritage Oaks in Ingram. Elizabeth met a man named Daniel Franz. Daniel moved in with us and married Elizabeth. Daniel was a good guy. He loved Chloe and me a lot. The summer before my 4th grade year we moved to Helotes. I attended Kuentz Elementary for two years. My best friend there was Jeremy Leal. He lived down the street and we played basketball everyday after school. I attended Garcia Middle school for my 6th grade year. I was in percussion and most of my friends were too so i always had fun. I was usually 2nd or 3rd chair after Preston and Alana. Elizabeth and Daniel wanted to buy a house so we moved to Laurel Canyon.

Starting in my eleventh-grade year of high school, I never knew all the changes I would experience. I attended Chickasaw High School in Chickasaw, AL. It was a little school, which had about five hundred students in total. I did not live in Chickasaw like all the other kids. I lived about twenty minutes away in Mobile, AL with my dad and stepmom. I went to this school because my stepmom (LaRae) was a teacher there. Also, I was like most girls in high school, I had a high school sweetheart named Michael Matthews. I thought my eleventh-grade year of high school was going to be a great and memorable experience until I found out some horrible news.

The morning dew was still on the ground from the steady drizzle the night before as I glanced outside to inspect the weather. I woke up as usual that morning around three o’clock threw my sweatshirt on, stuffed my bag with a dry towel and suit, grabbed some breakfast, and headed off. I didn't rush this time frantically trying to make it there on time. Instead I walked to my car step by step as my mind slowly turned to mush from the feeling of my life slipping away. I knew that as an millennial older generations saw me as an sheltered child, coddled through all my problems. If only this was true I thought, oh how life would be different. I was being crushed by an ever growing pressure to remain swimming on an national level, but still obtain and function within my two jobs. On top of all of this school was to be my primary focus, but I was unable to effectively operate in my school work because of this consuming monster. To them though it's only two jobs, it's only swimming morning and afternoon, it's only school. To them we aren't teens or young adults but children who are given everything.

I was used to visiting family in the hospital; for the first part of my life, I spent nearly every day with my grandmother and great grandmother to watch my great have her dialysis done. I was around three when she passed on, and at the time I hadn’t realized the severity and high stakes that a hospital can suggest. I would later discover, at the age of thirteen, the urgency and pain that hospitals can cause when my grandfather Allison passed away. Seeing him hooked up to all of the strange machines and devices that solely could prolong his life has been one of the most tragic and saddening experiences of my life. Witnessing some of his final moments has taught me to value life and is ultimately what has driven me into my current path in life.

I was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I like to think that I’ve been blessed to experience so many different cultures, lifestyle, and diversity in Guatemala City amongst its people spending the first 6 years of my life and then moving to Belize. The change from only speaking and hearing Spanish every day to learning English after moving to Belize was a struggle. A struggle that I am so thankful I went through now because that made my transition much easier as I got to further my education to where I am now; a proud graduate and Alumni from the University of North Florida.

Until I was eight-years-old, I had a relatively typical family: a mom, dad, two younger sisters, one younger brother, and two dogs. I was goal-oriented and determined even as a young girl; I had my life figured out for the next ten years. I had a strong sense of who I was, but one June day, I began the arduous process of redefining my plans and sense of self.

On Saturday, June 24, 6:00am me and my family were getting ready to go to Omaha .To experience going somewhere far away from home.But that wasn't the only reason why we were going we were .Also going because we wanted to see the zoo some people were talking about it and how wonderful and amazing it was to go there.Everyone was exciting me, my sisters and my mom too because it was are first time that we were going to stay at a hotel.

Being active and sporty was what I was known as in high school. Placing first in the school district for strongest female, I trained to keep the title. I was consistent in my workout regime, I would wake up at 5 am for a morning jog, in the afternoon I would go to the gym train for an hour and run home. Coming in the first year in college, I began working and finding time to workout was hard. I was not managing my time wisely. My anxiety became worse and I found comfort in food and Netflix. As the semester went on I was unhappy with myself, so my second year of college, having worked for almost a year and already got adjusted to the college flow, I proposed to myself to get back to the rhythm of being active.