Personal Narrative: A Lust For Meaning

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

When I was young my Dad would always remind me of how important these years as a kid are. He would always say watch how you act as a kid, for it will set the stage for the rest of your life. So many people I know ruined their lives when they were kids. This small, yet so important statement runs through my mind everyday. I love how everyone says they don’t care what people think of them, but I wish they knew how important it is to have a good image. I am not perfect, but I would like to be close as possible. But as Salvador Dali said “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it. “ The problem I see is everyone wanting to be someone that they are not. Sure, we all have our idols that we look

Just so you know, this is the Big Apple and I rule this town. New York City is filled with tall buildings, great culture, and historical sites. No other city has so much beauty that it takes your breath away; yet, there is a real danger that lurks on the streets. I should know because I am Detective Michael Morgan a United States Super Spy in charge of capturing dastardly villains who are set on destroying our world. Armed with mind-altering powers, Alex Higgins is on the top of the FBI’s list of the ten most wanted men in America. This thug is one of the greatest danger to our world and must be captured and jailed in the vault of death. There is no place safe for him to hide from the law and rumor has it, he is in my town. You break the law here in New York City, you pay the ultimate price: freedom.

I quickly swallowed my homemade authentic Indian food leftovers and gulped down my chocolate milk. Looking down at my watch that read 11:28am, I knew that I only had two minutes until my most favorite part of the day: recess. This particular day in 5th grade, I had run a lap around the playground before getting the rest of recess to myself. As I started walking for my warmup, another student ran up and said, “My parents said that your people caused 9/11.” Completely caught off guard, I held back the tears in my eyes and tried to shake off his comment. I had never encountered something like this.

Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

When I walked into the store, I was greeted by the sales associate, Cathy. She came over and asked me how she can help me today. I replied that I was looking for a new mattress and was told by a co-worker that they had a new Sleep Number bed and I was interested in finding out about them. The associate asked me about my current mattress and what I was looking for in a new mattress. After I answered her questions, she led me over to the demonstration mattress and asked me to lie down. She gave me the demonstration and then asked me to come over to the m7 mattress and lie down on that mattress. The associate then demonstrated the adjustable frame of the m7. She then gave me the laminated pricing sheet and explained that there was a current

Waking up to your mom screaming is never an ideal way to get up in the morning. However this time she wasn’t screaming because she was made at me but because she was shocked. Still somewhat groggy, I jumped out of bed and rushed to the kitchen. This is where I saw the dishwasher spewing water all over the kitchen, glass shards all around the floor, and my mom with a monstrous cut on her bloody hand. As the initial panic began to set in, I felt frantic and unsure of what to do as my mind raced to all the different ways to handle these problems: should I clean up the glass, call the plumber, help stop the bleeding, or to call someone else who was more capable of dealing with circumstances like these.

My initial perceptions about the students of St. Angela were very stereotypical. Honestly, I expected those students to come from single parent backgrounds and come from a low income household. I expected to deal with students who live life in a survival type of manner. What I mean by survival type of manner is for one to be on defense seeing the type of the children are from the Austin area. Walking in to St. Angela I expected to deal with kids that didn’t listen and know respect for authority. I expected this due to my upbringing in the same neighborhood.

Home is the beginning of one’s book. It is where your story begins, forms its characters, shows its purpose, and reveals its ora. This is how mine is written. Home is on the buzzing highway down a bumpy gravel road. It’s Brandon, Mississippi. It is the only home I’ve ever known. Home is the smell of homemade biscuits and tomato gravy on Saturday mornings. It is “Bless Your Heart” and “Yes Mam” and “No Sir”. The little bedroom in the back of a grey double-wide where Carrie Underwood songs played and where I learned to curl my hair and put on mascara. My cousins and I running around with mason jars, chasing the lightning bugs. Bar-B-q on the back porch and never meeting a stranger. It is the morals learned and the identity

When I start to write a story, I try to reach into a particular topic, scene, or emotion and delve deeper to expand my understanding and its meaning in the human experience. I write not only to make sense of the world, but also to make sense of how others interpret what is written to their reality. I was drawn to creating stories when I was placed in an unfamiliar environment in the Solomon Islands. I made sense of and learned about my surroundings through crafting sentences; going from stressed and racy to calm and in control. Upon my return to America, I searched for ways to learn more about the craft, which I found through fiction workshops at Columbia University during my post-bac program and in my hometown of Austin, Texas. My interest

There are a lot of things that shape a person, A loss, A gain, or maybe a quest they undertook. Now I’m not talking about a quest to save the world like you might read in books, or watch in a movie. I’m talking about a goal you might strive to achieve or something you want to accomplish to learn more about not only yourself, but the people who surround you or the community you might live in. This is my quest, a quest that took me years to understand, but one that defines me as a person. A quest that showed me how to express my opinions, and to let others do the same.

What stood out for me most in this text was the way that Phil included all of Valeries thoughts and emotions while a part of the story was being explained. What astounded me even more was the writers ability to write the story in Valeries point of view.

My first snowboarding lesson, some 10 years ago, saw me clinging to my snowboarding instructor on a Remarkables bunny hill, sinking my nails into his jacket sleeves as if he was trying to escape. His parting words to me are still memorable to this day. “You are not cut out for this, you have no confidence, and you are too scared”. That was it for me. I refused to accept that and if they weren’t going to help me learn, I would figure it out for myself. I was determined.

A meaningful event I experienced was quite recent, it was the time I volunteered around my community to help innocent people who had lost their families, homes, and precious belongings due to Hurricane Matthew. My sister and I went around our community for a few days to support people by supplying them different kinds of things like food, water, clothes, and everyday essentials. The experience had turned out to be so much more than I had ever imagined. I have always wanted to help people as much as I could when they were going through difficult times, but I never imagined that my help by donating supplies would make such a big impact on them. The adults and children were so happy and grateful for the items we donated, and I was happy to see