Personal Essays : Personal Explorations

It hurts. My bright red bruises under the light were buzzing from the pain. The yelling and arguing were muffled by my loud sobs. Why did this have to happen to me? I was just a kid, I didn’t do anything! Stomp stomp stomp. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He found me and yelled into my ears even more. I was called ugly, fat, disgusting, useless, girly, weak. The words ringed in my ears as I asked myself once again, why? I was like a slave, I couldn’t defend myself, I had to survive the beatings. I succumbed to the insults and descended into chaos.

There is no doubt that there are many different morals found in cross country runners, but the two morals that I learned about and developed during my time in cross country is work ethic and leadership. There was no end to the lessons I learned and the progress I made in four years of cross country. Those are the lessons that stick with me and will continue to shape me as I go through life.

During high school, I played basketball and volleyball. I grew up playing sports and being very active. My freshman year, during basketball practice, I fell and immediately knew something happened to my back. After a couple X-rays and MRIs I found out I fractured my left and right L4 vertebras in my back. I grew up with back problems because I was born with a form of Spina Bifida and Tethered Cord Syndrome. I had back surgery when I was three years old, and I went to a neurologist yearly. The doctor cleared me and told my parents I could do anything I was capable of. My parents and I never thought I would experience anymore back problems until I fell playing basketball. Since I had to quit all sports, I decided to try and start modeling. The

For as far back as I can remember all the females in my family have

As I walked out of the theatre, after my audition for the musical Oliver, I knew in my heart that I had not gotten the lead role, and within the next week I found this to be true. I stared at the cast list on my computer screen for what felt like forever, just scanning the names and realizing that my name wasn’t under anything except the ensemble list. Ensemble was what I was always casted under, however this time I just hoped that this fact wouldn’t ring true. I mean, this was a kids show and I resemble a child more than I do an adult, so I thought that this would be my opportunity. As any actor or actress knows, to not get the role you had hoped for is devastating, but any intelligent actor or actress understands that a part doesn’t make a person. I coped with my slight depression and in turn became excited for this new opportunity I was delving into. But as I would later realize, this wouldn’t be as easy as I expected.

Profile picture was him and a surfboard - this man looks tall, dark, and handsome - a must meet! He states he is artistic and currently in between Jujitsu careers (oh boy, first red flag). I shake it off, considering myself as being way too judgmental; stop it Tammy - We move forward with the 'meeting' - Big Sur is 5'5 with work boots on and soft-spoken - slightly balding, strands poke through, here and there, like piglet hair. Definitely not a match - now what? Must fill an hour's worth of bullshit small talk in order to get through this, thank GOD I babble when nervous- WAIT! I got a text from some biker guy during the 'so where have you been in the United States question' (like I care) – I use this as my emergency text to take off -

This was the first night I had been out on the town, since coming of age. After dark I left to the bloody goblin, a tavern near the center of town. I’ve been there many times with my father when I was younger. However, that was many years ago, I recall the smell of strong alcohol burning my nose and the smoke stained roof. I forgot how short of a walk it was to the goblin seeing as I arrived there in just a few minutes, no time to reminisce before going in on my own. The tavern was loud and you could hear the sailors inside singing shanties that remind me of the docks near home. The smell of burning alcohol was strong in the air. The building was in rougher shape than I remember. some of the windows were cracked and some were even broken in. The goblin cutout they had above the sign was sun rotted and ready to fall apart and

Maiya means goddess of spring and Munroe means man from Ro. I was told my mother named me after Maya Angelou because of how much of a powerful and influential person she was. My mother added an “I” in my name to make it unique and also so I wouldn’t bring shame to Maya Angelo if I turned out to be a horrible person. The photo I chose was a photo of a lady taking a photo of the Eifel Tower. Conducting research helps me understand why this photo describes me and why I chose photography for my career path.

Throughout high school, I have had the ability to excel in a multitude of subjects. I am not trying to make myself sound better than I am, but I am merely sharing that I have put every bit of effort in each course I have taken. That does not mean I always received an 'A', but it does mean that I am one of the rare students that did not just memorize the information given, but actually understood it. But I believe the point of this question is to understand what I have truly excelled in, and Pre-Calculus is one of the courses that I must say is the best subject I ever did in. It was not in terms of the letter grade; however I did get an 'A' but that is not why I excelled. I excelled because when I was out of school for almost 2 months, that was the only class that needed my

Everyone says things come and go so don't stress so much about what you can't control.

I want to so bad, I want to push. My thumbs ache with tension, and anticipation. They know what is to come, they want it to come. My chest is heaving now, like a mad man’s. Am I mad? I am pushing now. Pushing my dirt clustered thumbs into the sockets of her eyes. She is awake now. The pain she must be feeling is unfathomable. The juices of her eyes are watering out now, dripping ever so closer to the rust dusted floor. I push deeper, harder, with more purpose now. I know what I am doing, but never have I done it before. The outcries of her’s are masked by the deep, monotone, grunting of my own. I haven’t stopped screaming since I began, and I fear now that I never will. I can see the tendons in my thumbs, flexed, and alert. My long uncut

“Hey, I noticed we haven’t been talking as much recently. Is everything okay?” I reread the text I’m about to send to Ash three times before I click send.

It all started way back in second grade. It was Easter weekend and me and my family and my Aunts and Uncles and cousins and second cousins were all out in the desert camping. It was late morning, when the sun was almost at it's highest in the sky and it was beating down on us. Me and my dad borrowed my Uncle Mark's bright red quad and we took it out for a ride. We were riding at about 5 or 10 miles an hour because I was steering and my dad wouldn’t let me go any faster than that. We here someone else coming around the corner so I find a clearing and pull all the way off the road. The unknown vehicle comes around corner and we find out it's a Yamaha Rhino and they are cruising. The guys in the Rhino freak out, slam on the brakes. The road

“There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because, you realize there is so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on” by Zayn Malik. This quote caught my attention because it explains how we cannot dwell on the past or the present and we need to keep moving to the future. I struggle with this because I hate when people are mad at me, this would probably be my greatest weakness. I think one of my strengths would be making friends and cheer and dance.

“Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, but sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself”-Travis Pastrana. I got distracted and didn’t see the guy in fourth, he kicked me into the wall. I bounced off the wall and tried to catch my fall with my arms. That didn’t work I could hear my arms crackle and break. I saw the guy in sixth coming toward me, but I couldn’t move. Bam! everything went black.