Personal Narrative: Broken Board

As the Frost Festival finally drew to a close, the excitement of the frost fae, both royal and non-royal, began to wane as the festivities and parties died down, and the frosty multicolored flags of the various frost fae Clans were taken down and folded neatly for storage until the next Festival. I’d been working as a Frost Guardian for over twelve hours protecting the princess of the Snowflake clan, and, even though I thought that I was going to be beyond exhausted and more than ready for bed, I still felt strangely wide awake and even a little buzzed with adrenaline, like I’d gotten energy from the remnants of the festivities that had happened around me and the fact that I was finally training in the real world as a Guardian.

Having grown up in a time and within a society where the terms fail and lose are rarely spoken to children in any aspect of their lives, I generally considered myself a success in everything I did. I received medals, ribbons, certificates, awards, and trophies for academics, sports, and for just being a kid. So in my mind, for the majority of my life, I was unaware that I had failed or lost at anything. And having a father that is a U.S. Marine, failing and losing were not things that I wanted to tell him that I had done. Now that I am tasked to determine how I have grown from my failures, I realize that I have failed, that failure is not the end, and that I have excelled in several areas of my life due to what I have learned from those failures.

We were racing through the field and I just kept thinking to myself nothing bad will happen. There was an oil pumping jack on a hill up ahead. The hill was not to steep; it was much like a small ditch. The pumping jack was surrounded with white gravel. As we were getting closer Taylor started to slow down until we finally came to a complete stop. Taylor told us how she used to jump the four wheelers up the hill and how much fun it was. This was the point where I started to second guess being on the four wheeler with a person I did not know. Taylor sped up and jumped over the hill, she landed perfectly. Jadey decided to try it so I held on really tight, we sped up and shot over the hill. We landed great the first time and went back for another round. As Jadey got more confident doing this we began going faster and higher off the hill. It was the fourth round that did not go so well. We took off from about thirty yards away and were going fairly fast, over the hill and up into the air we went. The four wheeler started to tip forward and I could tell we were going to land with the front wheels first. Jadey panicked and hit the brakes right as the front wheels hit the ground which caused me to fly forward and fall off the four wheeler. The four wheeler ran over my left inner thigh and I hit my head on the hard gravel. It all happened so quickly that is was a

I have lost my grandpa and have not gotten over the idea of it. When I was in the sixth grade, my grandfather was very sick; he could barely walk. While my grandmother and some other family members went uptown for some household things, food, and medication, I was told to take care of him. Yet, I wanted to play with my friends outside. He told me to go ahead and play, but for some reason I just got mad and slammed the door and left. Around nighttime, I seen an ambulance pull up to my grandparents’ house.

We played a couple of times of tag then we decided to race to see who can get to the other side of the bleachers first. When we started racing I stepped on something and almost fell. I looked

Our drill director decided to stop by and see how we were doing. There was an issue that we had talked about before where the color guard would mesh with the drum line, while throwing a toss at the same time. This was extremely dangerous considering that we had no control of our flags and of how close we were to other people. Because of this, the drill director decided to change the drill so that we would be moving while throwing the toss. I was extremely resentful of this because i was not very good at this toss and now i would be moving while the flag was in the air. The first few times we went through the new drill i simply did not throw the toss and when i decided to throw it i would not throwing it as high as it was supposed to be. Once i had the drill completely memorized, i decided to push myself and throw the toss the way i knew to, with all of my strength and keeping my free hand in the air. We were going through the set and i was nailing it, i threw my flag up high up into the sky, watching it as it spun round and round. It seemed to come down with double the force that it was thrown with and because of that and because i didn't leave my free hand in the air to catch the flag and to guard my face i t came crashing down onto my nose. My hand flew up to my nose and i ran from the flag, not wanting to mess up anything else. I knew right away that my nose was bleeding. I took my hand away from my nose and

Realizing my life had become unmanageable took place some time before coming to CityTeam. I was living day-to-day in my addiction, not caring about anything or anyone. Stealing was a daily task for me at this time; honest work was not an option. I was unable to keep a job because, no matter what, the drugs came first. Stealing, cheating and lying became all I knew of how to survive.

So, when I was like five I used to hang out with Nick, Dakota, Kiser, Collin, Dawson, and a few other boys. That day it was just us six though. The boys were jumping off of the equipment at recess. We were playing “transformers”. I decided to just run around and not jump off it. I went down the slide and stuff like that. I was smarter than them and knew something would happen. They kept jumping and trying to make me but I refused. It was about a five foot jump down. They kept pushing me and literally tried to push me off a few times. After about ten minutes of this I finally decided to jump. It was fun at first and I kept going for a while. I would jump, run around to the stairs, crawl through the tunnel, and jump again. I did this about twelve times until they thought it would be funny to push me off. I’m sure my face was priceless when I realized what was happening. I ended up trying to land correctly but messed up and landed on the side of my right ankle so it turned in and immediately went down. The boys jumped off and surrounded me, looking at me because they had no idea what happened. I couldn’t get up until they blew the whistle and I had to. I ended up being able to get up but had tears in my eyes (I didn’t like to cry and still don’t. I like to think I’m tough and no matter what happens I’ll be ok.). I hobbled back to class while everyone else was running back. I almost made it back when one of the aid’s stopped me. She said “Oh my gosh, are you ok!?”. I looked at her and

“your good,what happened to his foot”which was a mistake he came at me like a freight train and he tackled me so hard I fell and punched him strait in the face and fell down and did not wake up so I ran and started skateboarding away.I did not notice, but a beat down truck with Colorado licence plates was following me and then I turned into an alley and they suddenly stopped and the Dad jumped out and chased me into a wall and all I could see was a truck roof. In a free parking lot with a broken

Before I longboarded, I thought that I would never learn hot to ride one or that I as going to get hurt. Well one of those things came true and I’ll tell you that it wasn’t the first one. It was a sunny Milwaukee afternoon and me and my friend Nick were very hungry. He wanted to go to Wendy's but no one there to drive us and it was at least a mile away. He suggested that he rides his longboard, and I ride my bike, but my bike was buried in the back of my garage. But then he said that I should ride my dad's longboard to Wendy’s. I was nervous but I said I would only ride it if my dad said yes thinking that he would say no. So I called him and asked him and he said yes so I grabbed the board and went outside. When I tried to ride it, I was slow

Stepping on to the scratched up ice, however still gleaming in all the light. I remember shaking of fright and of the cold atmosphere surrounding me. Not knowing what was coming next. Will I fall?, Miss a step? Forget my program? Soon enough my music would start and I would be off. Thinking about my program, hoping I wouldn't mess anything up. It was all a big blur, nothing was clear to me. The audience was filled with parents and skaters from all parts of the COS (Central Ontario Section). The judges seemed to be staring me down, trying not to look at their mean, cold eyes, I stepped on the ice. Everyone staring at me, it made me very uncomfortable, and I felt pretty awkward being there. I tried not to show my fear, however I don't think I did that very well. There was this little girl at her first skating competition, and the first one to go, how will she do?

With my friend I decided to ride the the best roller coaster that Six Flags had,and after the ride , I felt very proud that I had ridden a big roller coaster for once in my life without being scared. When I got on, I was exited about going on the big rollrcoaster, and there was a huge drop. My friend was really scared but I was excited. I told my friends "I want the red won". Blue, green and red were suppost to race, but everybody know that the red one always wins but I was just riding it for fun. So we did the huge drop and it looked like I would hit a wood beam butI passed underneath. Then I went up and down and up again. The second drop wasn't as big as the first but

So my first lesson was how to balance on the skateboard. Albert told me where to put my feet and I stood on the skateboard. I was so scared I was going to fall and I did. He help me up and told me not to be so scared and shaky. So I tried again And I did it really well. I even leaned forward and back so once I started riding I would already know how to turn. So now I needed to learn how to balance on the skateboard with one leg and it only took a couple tries to get it down. So once I learned how to balance on the skateboard Albert told me to step on it and he pushed me.I was going so fast on the skateboard but then I remembered about my training. I started to balance and I started to turn and then I was riding a skateboard. All I had to do know was balance on one foot and kick back by other leg so I can push myself. I started to do that and I fell.

I remember when I was 13 and I got invited to my first roller skating party. It was a friend of the family’s birthday party, and she had invited a couple of friends to come hang out at the roller skating rink. My first reaction was excitement because it was my first time doing anything like that. I had watched plenty of movies before of roller skating and had thought it was cool. Being able to execute those moves in real life I knew it would be a different story but I decided to be optimistic about the party. When the party finally arrived, I was one of the first ones to grab skates but the last one to make my way to the floor. Eventually I worked up the courage to step on the floor, and immediately started to cling to the wall. The floor was a lot more slippery than I had anticipated yet I

One moment; that’s all it takes. A single moment that leaves you breathless almost as if time has stopped in its tracks. These moments don’t come around all the time but when they do; it’s life-changing. Cold. Dark. Abandoned. It was a cool November night in Goldsboro, NC. The seasons still transitioning from the hot and humid summer to the brisk autumn weather. Leaves scattered on the street in bright reds, oranges, and yellows. The smell of whiskey filled the air. The only sound you could hear was the agonizing screaming coming from the little brick house at the end of the street. At the time I was barely one, a young child new to the world. With no choice I lay there in the corner of the room. Tears rolled down my face one by one like the single raindrops before a storm. The screaming became louder as my parents stormed closer to the mesh playpen. “You did it again! How could you do this? Not just to me but to your daughter too!” my mom shouted. Her voice cracked as she was barely able to speak. It was like someone had their hand covering her mouth allowing her only to speak when they released their hand for a brief moment. My mom's cold hands slipped under my arms as she picked me up from the playpen. Tears filled her dark brown eyes as the screaming ceased; suddenly then all at once. She tightened her grip around me as we watched him walk out the front door leaving only memories and broken promises behind. We waited days for the return of the man we thought