Personal Narrative: Evie And Vanna

When most people hear my full name , “Joann Botani," they automatically assume I'm Italian, but truth is I am actually Middle Eastern. From what I know my dad does have a little Italian in his blood but the name “Botani” actually comes from a city in Turkey. I come from an upper-middle class house hold and I have two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. Being the oldest has its challenges because there is so much expected from me whether it is school, work or social life. I tend to think my younger siblings have it easier because I am the one who pushes the boundaries with my parents and because of that my siblings usually get to do what ever the want because it is not as extreme as what I do. It has always been easy for my younger sister because she is the “princess” of the house but I am my dad’s favorite while my brother is a momma’s boy. My family is very competitive when it comes to school and grades, my little brother and I were always duking it out

My first “Mud Bowl” football game I ever played in was in sixth grade the team I played for was Aviston. We were playing at Mater Dei practice fields it was raining and there was standing water on the field but we were still going to play. We were playing against the Bartelso Germantown Football team which we called Big Girl Football because of the letters they had on their uniforms BGFB and Aviston had been beating their team since before I played, so we were confident we were going to win. We did but not after a hard played game with people slipping and sliding all over the field. It was a nice day for football it was cool outside it was raining. All the conditions were perfect and every football player dreamed about playing a game in this

It wasn’t like any other swim practice, no, not like any other I’d ever gone to. No one usually moved to Minot, North Dakota that was also in swimming, so when Emily Pitcher and her family moved to town and came to practice, it was quite a shock for everyone on the team. She moved from Colorado and she had 2 younger brothers and a younger sister as well. They seemed nice enough but there was something about Emily, who was my age, which seemed a bit off.

Lauren Rezac- My weekend did not really start off to exciting. Right after my Fast-Pitch game I was picked up by my dad in our 1962 jeep. When we got home we had supper and we all stayed up for a little bit and went to bed. On Saturday I had the house to myself, my dad was helping our neighbors while my mom and sister were in ST.Cloud.So When I was at home I was pretty bored so I did what most bored kids I know would do turn up the music and make a little mess, basically I made slime. When mom and Alexis came back my sister got a call from my dad to go help out so I went with her.I helped by steering the tractor when she got bored and she did the speed and stuff like that. On Sunday we gave mom her gifts then we got ready to trapshooting me

This year, I have three superb friends. They inspire me to do by best at just about everything. Audrey is inspiring when it comes to Cross Country, something she’s not the best at. Katie motivating when it comes to my writing, and C.j. encourages me to do my best, and always learn more.

Last year, 2016, scaled to my first tournament that would be played at Marista. I would not

Ella stood in the doorway of the locker room deciding if she was going to go along with the plan or if she was going to do the right thing.

When I was six I wanted to be Hannah Montanna. When I was 12 I still dreamed of becoming a pop-star, but figured I could have a second job too – just in case. I’m seventeen now and I’ve have read Maya Angalou and Ralph Waldo Emerson; I’ve studied American history, marvled at astounding scientific discoveries, and cheered for political revolutions. I've traveled to different states and analyzed geological features for the aesthetic beauty and for the geological history. I've done many things, the logical step here would be then for me to pick; speak or forever hold my peace, but in all honesty, I don't know what I want to be. My six-year old self would say it's because I've seen too much, I think it's because I haven't seen enough. I want to

On April 26th,1999 I emerged into the world a happy baby given the name Bethany Gavin. I’m now in year 12 and I attend Cooks Hill Campus, Big Picture. My education began here in year 10 after leaving three years of home schooling and have grown as a student as the years have gone on.

The kids she usually babysat were like normal kids - misbehaved, called her names, disregarded her - but the job always got done. Everyone always told her she had a thing with children, that they would end up liking her no matter how they expressed it. They were certainly a handful for just a teenage girl just trying to earn some cash, but she agreed that she did have a thing with children, and always eventually reasoned with them. The kids always ended up begging for her not to leave at the end of the day. They loved her, as did the parents. It was an easy job for her, working with kids. And she always wanted children of her own one day. It was the appealing idea of being able to take care of a unique human being and pass on her own values and life lessons - she didn’t live and learn for nothing.

Jane and I grew up in grade school together. She was in the class ahead of me, but her and I were still friends. My father was into politics and involved himself in whatever he could with Jane's dad. Since our fathers were away quite often, we would spend a lot of time together. Since Jane didn't have a mother, my mother would often include Jane in whatever my sisters and I were doing. We would have great talks together talking about what we wanted to do when we grew up. Even though neither one of us knew what we wanted to do, Jane was someone that always had the biggest heart for helping people. She was always talking about the stories her father told her about President Lincoln, and even though she didn't know how, she knew she wanted to be someone to make change like he did.

One of my nicest friends when I moved from Azores, Portugal to Minot, North Dakota in 2005 was Nicole Hamm. Nicole and I met at the CDC in Minot Air Force Base, in September of 2005. Ever since we met each other we have became unseperatable, until she moved to Florida in the summer of 2015 but we still talk. When we first met she was kind, and caring. There was never a day where she didn't make me laugh so hard that I was crying. When I first met her, we played 20 questions. My first question was what is your favorite color? Yet, her answer was neon purple ( not purple it had to be neon purple). As we kept playing I found that she likes to play Legos, and Minecraft with her younger brother and that she loves to watch Monster High and My

Throughout our lives, we all make sacrifices in order to achieve our goals or to help others achieve their goals. For some, this may mean sacrificing friendships or family time, or for others it may mean sacrificing money and other dreams which may also be of great importance to us. A person who has made many sacrifices in order to achieve their aspirations or goals is someone with strength, determination and masses of will-power, and it is someone who is not prepared to give up on their dream.

Lauren and the others in her group are in a new situation; they have to survive out of the walls. Lauren said, "Everyone who's surviving out here knows things that I need to know... I'll watch them, I'll listen to them, and I'll learn from them. If I don't, I'll be killed. And like I said, I intend to survive" (Butler 173). She's always focused on adapting to new situations - but one key to that is learning from others and bringing a group together to support each other.

     She seemed to know everything. Anytime I had a perplexing question I knew she would know what to tell me. Her wisdom spanned several subjects. Everything from the textbook things they wanted me to learn in school, to the life lessons that there are no textbooks for. She taught me by example. She showed me that it was just a waste of my time and energy getting mad, upset, angry or so irate that I allowed myself to be controlled by my emotions. She was always calm, patient, and even tempered when faced with people who were less than pleasant to be around. I learned from watching her deal with people that being nice never fails. And I learned from watching her deal with the situations life would present that as long as you gave everything you had to give and never quit, you could never be beat.