Personal Narrative: A Personal Application

“Casey, your group needs to do the stunt one more time!” coach said imprudently. It happened March 26, 2015; it was at the end of a two hour practice. During the summer months in South Georgia, it is utterly hot and humid, especially in our cheer gym (a warehouse with no air conditioner); it only has two heavy-duty fans and a roll-up door. With this in mind, my group became slightly irritated. Everyone was exhausted; nevertheless we still had to do the stunt anyway.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

In life do we see that everyone else is wrong or do we not want to admit that we are wrong? In my eyes I don't want to admit that I am wrong because I don't want to seem stupid. I ran into a situation last night during soccer practice that I want to understand where the other people are coming from. In this situation people are saying that a group of us Seniors on the soccer team are favorites and in my eyes I don't see that at all.

It all began with a simple phone call one night after dinner. “Joe,” my father hollered up the stairs, “it’s for you” It is Jackie and she sounds really upset.” I walked downstairs to pick up the phone to see what was wrong with Jackie. “Hello Jackie, what is wrong?” as I was listening to her on the phone I was becoming very upset. I was not happy with Jackie. I was very tired and had looked forward to a nice quiet evening at home, not another stupid adventure with Jackie. After talking to Jackie for about five minutes she said “ I will be over in a few to pick you up because we really need to talk in person.” Hanging up the phone very upset because I did not want to be bother with any adventures.

I struggled to identify a personal experience that impact my life as the topic for this paper. After days of thought about the assignment, I sat down to write, but I ended up staring at a blank computer screen for a long time. I thought to myself, I am struggling. This thought prompted me to think of all the times that I had struggled in my life. I remembered struggling in basketball, school, and everyday life. As I thought about them, I realized that I got through them and benefitted from the experiences. Pushing myself to my limits, looking for ways to get better, and refusing to quit had produced some good results in my life. People tend to associate struggling as a bad thing because it is a difficult experience usually filled with frustration. That can be true, but it can also lead to positive changes in life. I wanted to show how struggling with something can have positive results.

Let me tell you why im awesome. I’m awesome because I’m athletic. I’m a great team-mate and I also run fast. When I was younger I wanted to be a professional soccer player because I just loved that sport so much. And because of that dream it made me athletic. It gave me the ability to run fast, but best of all it made me a great team mate.

Shane and I grew up in the same town and had mutual friends. I never knew him personally, but always knew of him until we met a year and a half ago at Manhattan Christian College. It’s a very small campus, so everyone knows everyone. An even smaller group of us started becoming very close friends. I went through a very rough season of anxiety and depression after experiencing a large among of tragedy, which is when Shane and I became even closer friends. He had experienced very similar issues in his life and struggled with the same anxieties I did. I am very thankful for the relationship we have, we are strictly platonic, which is why we can be such close friends. We

Where I come from, I am not proud sometimes. I grew up in a mixed Asian/american family. I came from a religious family background on both sides. I have experienced daily things that happen in my community. For me, all this has shaped how I am now through a lot of conditioning and influence.

It truly is astonishing how much we, as teens in the 21st century, take for granted. We go through our day, as if everything we do is a given right, rather than a privilege that we have. We don’t ever stop to think about how so much, could be taken away from us in an instant.

My biggest enemy was myself, I was stopping myself from doing the one dream I’ve had my entire life. Maybe because I was scared, scared of being judged by those around me or maybe it was that I was scared of failure. “It is not failure itself that holds you back; it is the fear of failure that paralyzes you.” - Brian Tracy. Somehow I realized that if I wanted my dream to come true, I couldn’t keep waiting for me to be “ready” and that if I kept waiting to be ready I’d be waiting my whole life. So I took charge and I posted my first youtube video.

Surely in life, you have experienced rejection. Suddenly substituting a significant lost before allowing ourselves mend from that hurtful reality. Maybe pursued counseling for a failing marriage yet the ending results were divorcing. Perhaps trying to overcome the pain of betrayal by a friend or family member. Is it possible had an interview didn't meet the qualifications for the job and feel like a failure?

The class trip to the museum seemed boring, but it actually proved to be one of the best adventures of my life. We strolled through several floors seeing tons of majestic statues, old books, and ancient paintings. Interestingly, loads of caution tape covered the entrance to the basement floor. So putting our brilliant minds together, my friends and I slipped right through the caution tape looking for adventure.

I gasp as my eyes spring open. For a moment, I forget where I am, and scan the room for something familiar. The plant on the windowsill. Four months ago, I reached the city limits of Twisted City. In a few weeks, I would be moving in with Alice. I was taught it was good manners to bring a thank you gift when someone invited you to their home, but what could a homeless girl like myself bring along? I had become accustomed to begging, scavenging, and even bargaining, gathering money wasn't my problem, choosing an appropriate gift was. A few blocks from the compound I lived in, was a flower shop. One day as I passed by, a plant in the window caught my attention. The small plant hid beneath it's much larger siblings, away from the sunlight and attention of consumers. Nevertheless, this plants beauty exceeded above the other supposedly elegant plants. The green of the leaves matched Alice's eyes, and the single blue flower matched my own. Of course, I had to purchase this plant, to grant it freedom and sunlight it was lacking. I had just enough to purchase the plant but would have to find an alternative for a saucer. Maybe the shop keeper felt pity for me, for she gave me a terracotta pot to house my little plant in. Alice loved the plant, she placed it in the window with pride and even became upset when the little plant's life began to fail. I took over its care, though Alice still admires the plant.

I had always doubted myself. From things as simple as answering a question in class to something as big as messing up my role in the fifth grade musical. One of my biggest insecurities was my athletic ability. I had always been a smaller guy and not very strong or fast. So when I had joined football for the first time I was very worried I wouldn’t fit in. I thought I was going to be that one weird person, that was until I had started. Everyone welcomed me and treated me just like anyone else. This had given me some confidence and I was more comfortable around my teammates, but I still thought I was absolutely terrible at doing anything physically. At least until I had finally accomplished something during a game.

When I was younger and hanging out with my friends, I now realize that we didn’t have the best experiences. I feel as if I was always the one to get hurt out of the family although I have never broken any bones. I’ve done some crazy things and stupid stuff, but I’ve learned from it and gotten better about knowing what to do and how not to hurt myself. Overall for being fifteen, I have been through a lot of “injuries.”