Personal Narrative

I arrived at practice with my shoes laced, hair pulled back, and the mindset that I was unstoppable. I could play against every member of my team and come out the victor on any given day. It was the first day of practice that week, and challenge matches were scheduled to begin. The team went through our daily shuffle of drills, conditioning, and running to prepare for what was lying ahead. While warming up with my friends, I felt great, talking about homecoming, boys, and a variety of irrelevant events. I felt ready. The odds were in my favor and nobody could stop me.

During the second to last week of summer, I traveled with my family to Cedar Point. Cedar Point is a sprawling amusement park with a wide variety of thrill rides, roller coasters, water slides, and entertainment. The park is located near Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio. It is the second oldest amusement park in the United States, as it opened 1871. Cedar Point is considered by many to be the “Roller Coaster Capital of the World” because of its record breaking seventy-one thrill rides which includes a total of sixteen roller coasters. I had been to Cedar Point two times before but this was my first time going back in three years. I was excited for the trip because there were many new rides and coaster that I had not

I caused Greg to break his hand without any remorse at the time. Greg was a high school acquaintance who tended to bully me. He was significantly taller, stronger and more athletic; therefore physically bullying me wasn’t much effort for him. When I heard he was coming to work at the warehouse, I wasn’t particularly happy about it. The warehouse contained boxes from multiple suppliers. Some were really thick and some were really thin. They all contained books, though some were heavy text books while others were light weight paper backs. All workers with experience knew which boxes were heavy, which had thick soft cardboard as a box, and which were encased in thin cardboard. I waited until Greg stopped by with his working partner for

I woke up. Feeling groggy, I went to take my pills. Being the way my brain was, I needed pills to function. I see things, but others don’t see them. These things, they are right in front of my face, but they are not visible to other people. I could not find my pills, I looked everywhere, even in my drug stash. They were not there. Wait, I sold them to Angelo. Well, remembering this, I need to go to the drug store.

His eyes are made for the road. Two tornado blue irises meet the highway, looking past the smudges on his lightweight frameless glasses. He shifts his hands along the steering wheel, dodging what hurts most. Noting which movements prevent his worn hands from freezing into twisted positions like cream flowing into black coffee. He wheezes a cough. Loses stability. Regroups. Accelerates.

I stared, face pressed against the glass window, leaving smeared breath marks. Trying to get my last glance at the house, but my tears making my vision blurry. I could see faint outlines of my friends waving goodbye, I knew I’d never see them again. The car was dead silent besides the sniffling and the sound of the car going over the bumpy road as we drove up the road until the house, my friends, and neighborhood were out of sight. I was born in Framingham Massachusetts and we lived there happily for years. My siblings and I had lots of friends there and we also had family close by. One day, we found out that we were moving to Sudbury, my dad’s hometown. My parents came to assent and had decided that this wasn’t the place they wanted my siblings

“So, uh, you’re not going to believe this.” These are the words I hear upon answering my phone. My friend continues, “I just dropped off my wife at work, and well, one tire is facing straight and the other one is not.” I get dizzy and my face lights up red as I hear the description of my car. My friend continues to stammer as he tries to explain what happened, but I don’t listen to any of it. I know that I’m getting the bill no matter what happened. “Well, have it towed to a shop.” I say, most likely interrupting his continued jabbering. “Call me when it’s there and I’ll take care of it.” This was not the first, or last, time that I had to make sure an unplanned event could be taken care of out of my pocket. In most people's lives there will

My day starts out like most of a dollar’s day starts. As I rest in my owners wallet. He grabs his wallet and slides it in his back right-hand pocket, with me included. This is how my journey begins.

I would go into a desperate panic when all a sudden I could not hear. I would get this hollow sensation in the pit of my stomach, my throat would become dry as I gulped and tried to gather my senses. It was as if the volume button was turned down and all that was left to hear was a weird gurgling static sound. Reality hit me hard and fast, I had hearing loss. I thought that was the worst of it, a fluke thing, little did I know about the next ten weeks ahead of me.

When I was in kindergarten, my mom who had just broke up with Wane A.K.A. the worst person on Earth, met my soon to be step-dad, Chris. They dated for a little bit, about three years or so. Chris was awesome, he would play super-heroes with me, and even let me jump on the couch. Then, one day, mom and Chris announced to both his family, my mom’s family and me, that they are going to get married. A year after the announcement we went on Royal Caribbean’s “Oasis of the Seas”, which was so big, it felt like being on the Titanic. We had a wedding on water, the taste of sea salt made me think of making cookies with my grandma. The day after the wedding I almost chopped my big toe off trying to stop the elevator door from closing. The doors felt like two razor blades

A few hours and two trips back to the refrigerator later, John found himself staring at the clock on the wall, attempting to decipher the time. It had to have been well into the evening by now, and he surely was supposed to be home hours ago but Alexander Hamilton had a way of making you forget things like that. He had just done a rendition of a Christmas song that John could not recall moments before and had stumbled through the lyrics to the tune of John’s laughter. At the final chord, Alex had taken it upon himself to dramatically drape his body across John’s legs and pushed as close as he could manage into his chest. John giggled at this before absentmindedly running his fingers through his hair.

I barely slept, ate on the run, and by the time the week drew to a close, I had accumulated close to twenty thousand dollars due to perseverance, and resiliency. Also, with Tyche on my side, I was able to rent an economical two bedroom apartment with plenty of sunlight, four blocks from ‘Ink it Baby’, and secured a job waiting tables at Harry’s Diner, two blocks from my abode.

That morning had begun just like any other, or so I believed. It was a cold winter morning, a school day, and I was 14 years old, getting up to get ready for school. It was while I went about my routine that I realized my parents were nowhere to be found. I was immediately concerned and searched the entire house for them before frantically running to our neighbors and beating on the door, desperate for an answer. When I managed to explain that my parents were gone he told me to come along in his car. Concerned, and fearing what was about to happen, I went with him, feeling even more frantic when I realized we had arrived at the hospital.

I was scared. No, I was more than scared. Terrified maybe. As I looked out the window in my two bedroom house, I could see a van in my driveway. It was completely dark, I was supposed to be sleeping, but of course, I was not. My mom was at work. I started pacing around, thinking of what my mother said to do if there ever was an intruder. However, I still couldn’t remember, I guess I was too busy with my pacing.

“Ding, ding, ding” the gong rang as the challenger fell to his knees, head limped forwards, looking lifeless in front of the champion. He returned to his corner to leave when his second out of nowhere, came in and slapped him hard on the cheek as the sound resonated across the hushed stadium.