My Greatest Experience

Walking into the stadium, was like a kid walking into a candy store for the first time. It was incredible, from the field to the seats, I loved it all. I was amazed at the size of the field in real life. I couldn’t believe it, I was actually there. We took our seats and waited for the game to start. I sat in the seat that my Poppy had always sat in. He had died almost 2 years earlier and sitting in his seat made me feel more connected to him. The game started and that crowd was electric. Being around other fans made me even more excited and energized. Adding to that feeling even more, was the fact that the Patriots won 55-31.Throughout the game, I kept looking up, down and around to fully absorb the environment around me. It was one of the greatest experiences of my

The next day was game day we all stayed in the same hotel so we all eat breakfast. I was quarterback so I had the most pressure on me. The football players left on the bus and went down there when we got there there was so many people there. I had butterflies in my stomach so, bad there was 3 hours before the game.

The pregame music felt as if it was vibrating and bouncing off of our bodies and the smell of food was circling the entire stadium. Walking down the flights of stairs to get onto the playing surface was a moment I will never forget. The atmosphere was incredible. Since we were early to the game, we were able to see both teams warm up and go through their pregame rituals. Also, during that time, we were able to take pictures, talk to other people, socialize, and enjoy leisure time with the coaches. At kickoff, we headed to our stadium seats to watch and enjoy the game.

I was so nervous for the game that my insides felt like I just did 50,000 circles on a roller coaster. My seats were so neat because I was at a high enough point to see the whole city.

We walked over to my coaches who were ecstatic that we just won and as I looked at the clock we only had .7 seconds left in the game. After the game I was walking to the car one of my teammates said ¨ Great job Austin I was almost crying with that last play.¨ That made me laugh. This experience impacted me in a positive way. It impacted me positively because after this game it made me realize something. It made me realize that I am a great football player. That day made me just feel like I was on cloud nine just because I did so well and it showed me I am good. I learned that hard work can pay off. I learned this because I have played football all the way back from when I was 5 playing flag. But with me always being a quarterback and practicing with my brother who is a reciever I have been able to do the best I can. Today I still think that the experience was so rad. I just think of that game because it was the first game I made a great play and I won it for my team. Whenever I think of that game I get motivated to do good. This experience has made me the best football player I can be. Now if I ever decide to give up football I can look back to this game and

My most defining experience would have to be the time when I not only skipped seventh grade, but also when I won the valedictorian of my eighth grade year. Looking back, these back-to-back experiences made me the person that I am today for two distinct reasons, one being that those experiences made me realize that I wouldn't have gotten to that point in my life without my teachers, friends, family, and most importantly God. Without those teachers there who pushed me to challenge myself and aim high, I wouldn't have even considered making that big of a jump in the first place. Without those friends who believed in me when I didn't in myself, I wouldn't have thought it would be possible for me to handle a harder curriculum with people I didn't

Pass. Set. Spike. Serve. Dig. I have heard these words surround me since I was young. Sports have played an important part of my life since I was young taking a parent-and-me swim classes at the local YMCA. I was that kid who played almost every sport out there, from karate to soccer to basketball. Even after all that, it still took me still took me years to find my true passion as far as sports go.

One of the real pleasures in being a member of Mario’s Band of Backpackers, was our weekend a month being in the wilderness. Even if it was only in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles.  Wild Horse Creek is actually further east in the San Bernardino Mountains.  Usually, the weekend. would be, some five or six miles, in this situation it was only four miles, to Wild Horse Creek.  There we would all tell our stories, relax around a campfire, have lunch, and later in the afternoon we would have dinner.  After breakfast, we hiked back over the same route as the previous day. Great Fun!

I took a deep breath. I could hear casual laughter and murmurs as friends behind me quoted “classic” lines from Billy Madison. How could they be so nonchalant? My cue was coming up. What if I missed it? What if I tripped? What if I forgot my lines? Worse yet, what if the audience glimpsed past the façade of my gregarious character? What if they saw (and judged) the real me?

As a child, I was able to spend a lot of time with my mother in her classroom. Now, as I look back, these days were incredible. They could even be described as my favorite memories. I remember the night before going to her work, I could not sleep. I was overtly excited to see Mom’s first and second grade students, giddy with excitement about what activities she would have me help with. When we would step into her bright and colorful room, I would instinctively run to the whiteboard and replace it’s clean, blank surface with the days date. This was very important to my young self. So important that I would re-write it again and again to make sure it was absolutely perfect before I would change the weather board and evaluate the day’s lunch menu. Mom would then run off to her morning meeting; this is when I often found myself sitting in her rocking chair, practicing reading the book her and her students were discussing. This way, I would be able to read it flawlessly when all of her small students were all sitting below me on the carpet. As I got older I continued to help Mom in her classroom over the summer to prepare for the upcoming school year. It became one of my favorite activities, something I looked forward to all summer long. I helped her plan her themes; she often chose blue and green colors. Likewise, owls were typically the animal of her choosing. Although, if it were completely up to me, I would have chosen that my animal be a lion so I could call my classroom the

Growing up in the middle of Ohio with neighbors, no closer than a mile down the road made for a good chance that an ornery eight-year-old boy to learn all the fun tricks from his father. I loved living in the country, you could do just about anything you wanted without getting yourself in trouble. My father, Rich worked out of town during the week to support our family. When the weekends came I knew that meant it was time us to spend time together and for me to learn his ways.

Over the weekend my family and I and Maddie went to the AT&T Park. I enjoyed this experience a lot and would definitely go again. At first we walked around the first level to see what this was all about, but we got there right at 10 (when it started) because we had to get to a soccer game, but all the booths were still setting up so we couldn’t really do that much so we decided to go down to the field where big booths were set up. The first booth we went to was where a man was setting up a long tube and he said that it was like a huge vacuum and that he is going to shoot a ping pong ball against the wall. This was a lot louder than I had expected it at first, but it was really cool to see that something I would think sucks things in (a vacuum) could shoot things out. Then we moved on to a booth where a man had laid out metal items(a spatula, a spoon, and a slinky) with two strings ties to them. The man there told us to take the string and wrap it around your fingers and put your fingers in your ear and then bang the metal against something hard, a table or the round. At first I tried this with a spoon and I heard a cool sound and he explained to us that the vibration from the spoon hitting the table went up the string and directly into my ear. Then he told me to try this with the slinky, by brother tried it before and told me that was the coolest thing he had ever heard and that I should definitely try it. And it was the coolest thing I have ever heard. It is really hard to

When I was younger I always loved action movies. I always loved to watch hand to hand combat. It just seemed so fun to watch. I always only watched the fighting parts and skipped everything else. Watching people fight made me so happy and pumped up. I would feel so confident and motivated. So, one day I was thinking of the most imaginable thoughts. I started playing movies in my head of me fighting bad guys. Saving the princess from the evil ninjas. Saving the damsel in distress from the half human, half dragon, man. Undercover cop fighting Backstreet thugs to save a woman’s purse. Being the hero and saving the day. All the things you could day-dream about when you’re a kid. I always played games with some sort of fighting tactic too. Mostly a game called Assassin’s Creed or Prince Of Persia. It just was so fun to me. I felt like I had a connection to hand to hand combat. But, I knew that a lot of discipline and hardwork will follow. If one day I was a real fighter.

On July 23, 2015 I experienced something that was extremely life changing for me. This day I accomplished something I have been dreaming about doing for over 10 years. The day I got to see my favorite band live in concert was the day that I will never forget. The goal for a lot of people is to see their favorite band in person and to say I got to do that is amazing to me. My experience seeing my favorite band live will be remembered forever as being one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life.

A smile, a small compliment from a stranger or a word of encouragement all have the ability to brighten someone’s day. These same actions can even change a person’s life. Inspiration can strike at any moment. For me, it was at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City sometime in March of 2011. It wasn’t a smile or kind word that changed me, but a musical number, a group of dancers, and an orchestra five feet in front of me.