Personal Narrative: Hit The Brakes

Most people are all grown up when they finally figure out what they want to do with their life. I was 4. I realized what I wanted to be when I attended my very first Rodeo. Even though it was so long ago I can remember that day like it was yesturday. That day got me on the path to my future.

I went out for the track team when I was in seventh grade. I enjoyed track because I enjoy running, jumping, and spending time with my friends. The track season was amazing because I learned to do the high jump. I had to learn how to time my steps and jump backwards. Did you know that long ago they would jump forward over the bar. Then a man named Dick Fosbury tried a different way, go over backwards, now this is called the “Fosbury flop” Which I think sounds like an ice cream cone of some sort but. I also had to learn the lingo. “Up” means it’s your turn to jump. “On deck” means you are next in line. “In the hole” means you are third to jump. It is important to stay in order, once at the Metamora track meet I thought they had called my name, I jumped and made it over the bar. but It was not actually my turn so I had to jump again, I wanted to give him a Well-that-was-your-fault-not-mine kind of look. Luckily, I made it over the second time also. Another meet I remember was when I jumped 4 feet 11in. I had no idea I was going to jump that high that day because it was cold and rainy. I was very surprised and I ended up winning that event that day. Since Micah was hurt and he normally beats me, I got first so I was happy. I participated in sectionals. I had to jump 5ft

I took another deep breath and went back around one last time. This time my mom got out of the car to look from the outside. I came around the corner and went through my memorized steps of parallel parking. After I finished my mom came to the window and exclaimed, “That was great! But can we go home now?”

My head was going crazy, I could barely think straight.I was off to a great start. I has stuck all my landings and I just need one more Tumbling pass to go, and if I had stuck it then I would qualify to Nationals. My brain was rushing super fast that it felt like I was off the floor.

Hi iam Edgardo Flores i was born in casa grande, az not that far away from our state capital,Phoenix, Az.theres nothing better to do in a hot summer than going out with the friends to a lake and have a blast riding jet skis boats and my favorite, swimming!My activites of the day are shooting,riding horses,and my favorite one is quad riding.Thats right! ive been doing these fun exciting hobbies since i was 9 years old.pretty young huh?

There I was on the block next to the High Bar. It was about 5:00 at night when my coach told me to do a Kip. As I got up on the bar my nose filled with the smell of chalk. I started to swing, and as I came out of my half turn I looked good. Everything seemed fine but as I came to the part of the Kip where I have to pull my legs up to the bar, I slammed my shins into the bar. My momentum was stopped and I dropped on to the mat, missing the Kip. I felt like I had let down my coach and I had let down myself too. That day I experienced failure. That failure made me want my Kip even more so I worked harder and had support from my teammates.

At a young age, I moved from the country I was born in (Dominican Republic) to Miami Florida. Moving is not an easy thing to do, I had to leave all of my friends and family behind and become familiarized with uncertain place. I was surrounded by the unknown, everything was strange and so different to what I was usually use to. At the time I could not speak any English at all but that eventually did not matter to me, I slowly started adapting to my new environment and I became more positive. Although I could not communicate well and had a few obstacles I was very organized with my studies and kept very decent grades.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Was the sound I was use to waking up every morning. It was early in the morning I dreaded our early morning skate. Going from a hot humid day to cool ice rink is very refreshing. This year was voted captain, something that I was very proud of. We had a game this wednesday evening. The team we were playing were animals every one of them. The sport those boys played was more like cage fighting than hockey. When we were warming up Jack, the captain on the other team came over to me, he has always been a bully in a way.

Thoughts racing though my head of every excuse in the book of what I was going to tell my boss. Should I say I had an appointment or that my dog got sick? Or should I even go out on a limb and tell him I am sick? Or maybe I should tell him the truth which is always the best option. It was my second day on the job and was already panicking about being late. My jeep had broke down and the battery wouldn’t start.

It was the first time I was going to drive. My dad stopped on the gravel and said,”Drive to the house.” I hopped into the driver's seat and tried moving the gear shift. “Um, dad it's not moving,” I said. He responded with,”Son you have to put your foot on the break to move the gear shift.” I set my foot on the break the threw the gear shift into drive. I stepped on the gas pedal and the car took off. The whole way to the house it was like a stop and go sort of thing. I was really scared to hit the gas pedal because I was afraid it was going to go way too fast. Also, The car was so touchy! Every time I would give it a little gas the car would rev up its engine. As the car went down the hill I had my foot on break the whole time. Every time I

Doing the right thing is the thing that matters the most. It was November twelfth in twenty

J. R. R. Tolkien wrote, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” I have taken this quote seriously in the way that I have lived my life thus far.

I thought my life was amazing. Everything about it was perfect. I didn't think anything would be able to disturb that peace. I had no idea that anything was wrong. I never imagined my parents would get a divorce.

People take many things for granted that they will never even realize. Like kids take for granted how their life is while they are young and assume it will always be that way, or how people thing they will always live in the same house and then are not prepared to move. Never take what you have for granted is something you always tell yourself, but most of the time other things are on your mind over thinking about what you have while you have it. I was one of those people that didn’t realize what they had till it was gone.

“It is going to fly by Nik, be sure to take advantage of it.” Those were the words I heard from my Algebra 1 teacher, Mr. Karp. That is all I ever really heard from anyone. Do not get me wrong, things eventually do come to an end, but people focus entirely too hard on the ending. Momentum has showed me that the beginning is the most important aspect of an experience. When you focus on the end there is no hope only fear. However, when you concentrate on the beginning it teaches you to be hopeful. You are inspired to be the best version of you that you can be and that is what momentum has done for me. I’ll be the first to tell you that I was petrified to finally come to college. I felt this was because I was focusing on what I would be do after