Personal Narrative: My Crossing

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.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! There was a knock the door late at night. There was a letter, it was from the manager at the sunny slope apartments. The next morning we opened the letter. It said we were getting evicted. We didn’t know why. But we knew what it meant, we had to move! We were so worried, because we didn’t know where we could move or even worst of all we didn’t know if we were going to have to move a different school. I had been at that school my whole life, and known all of my friends there.

I never thought I would be labeled an outsider, a misfit even. As I trudged my way through the halls of my small town high school, I would endure the gazing pairs of eyes, that belonged to my peers, followed by whispering and often times some laughter. I always used zone out during those repetitive speeches and commercials about the effects of gossiping and rumors; never did I imagine that one day I would be on the receiving end of of the everyday potshot. Growing up I was always the center of attention, the one everyone yearned to be friends with, never was I the antisocial child in the corner with nowhere to turn… not until high school. They say high school changes you. They say high school accounts for some of the greatest years of

Last year I started a new sport, cross country. I only did it because my lacrosse coach said that it might help me get better for lacrosse. So I went to the first late summer practice last year to see what this was like, so then we did warm-ups and a lap around the track. Then it was the first time I met coach Chase, My first impression of him was going to be very strict, But soon realized that this was false because of one of the first things he said. He said “I know there are a lot of nerves here right now, but cross country isn’t about winning every race, that comes later” then continued with “Cross country is about showing what you can do to yourself.” This struck me very hard because I was not that fast and was near the back. Through that fall the team did very well, I also made some progress myself. After the season was over I made a decision.

Throughout the active school year, I take part in cross country, track and basketball. I also played volleyball for a year, but I decided to concentrate on my main passion, cross country, instead of dividing my time and attention into two sports at the same time. I have been running cross country ever since I was old enough to run in the munchkin races. The sport has been passed down through the family, almost every single one of my siblings have run or at least tried it. In track, I have ran the mile and two mile since the seventh grade. These last couple years I joined into the long distance relays. In 2016, the first year we decided to start a relay it consisted of my sister, Victoria, Tristen Ness, and Sammy Swanson. The first time we ran

Cross Country is one of the hardest sports out there. That may be a biased opinion, but in my experience it is true. Only certain people are willing to put themselves through such physical and mental pain for a race that is less than 30 minutes. I am a very driven person. When I want to do something, I set a goal and I work towards it until I have achieved it. That’s why cross country is such a satisfying sport for me. It’s hard--harder than anything I’ve ever done--but it’s so much more rewarding when you look back and see how much progress you’ve made. Cross country may seem like an individual sport, and it can be, but to succeed, you need your whole team’s effort. I have learned that not everyone is as driven as I am. Few people are willing to put in the hard work in practice to do well at meets.

It was October 2016 of my junior year, right in the heart of the Cross Country season. Cross Country was fun and team was doing great, but I was looking forward to the upcoming winter track season. High jump is where it is at and that is where I wanted to be and then it happened… I went down and my ankle was caught underneath me and twisted. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I was hurt. I was on the ground, in pain as other racers passed me. I was able to get to the finish it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fast, but I did it.

My whole life I’ve felt like an outsider. When I was younger dealing with a learning disability, I have had a hard time making and keeping friends even to this day. I struggle with being a follower instead of a leader. My own adoptive father verbally abused me growing up and I also had kids in fifth-sixth grade who constantly bullied me. I still am reminded of an instance when the first day of fifth grade approached: I got on the bus and these older girls started making fun of my pants saying, “She’s wearing high-waters.” I was humiliated in front of my peers every day since than during those two years. After being bullied for so long I made a vow to myself to never forget the pain inflicted upon me on a daily basis.

Many people have left legacies from when they were alive. Some are good, and some are bad. Those people may not agree with what they have left behind, and some may be perfectly okay with theirs. For me, I would like to leave behind a legacy that shows my family that I was a good person. I would want them to know that I had good intentions for my life and that I wanted to do good for myself and others. In this essay, I will explain what I would like my legacy to be like.

My wRite of Passage topic connects to my believes in many different ways. Not only Planets and Galaxies, but space in general has always fascinated me. In so many ways space has affected what I believe, when I was young I thought that the sky was the sky and that was that, or that space was blue and clear all the time. What I learned as I got older is that our sky is like a wall preventing us from seeing what is behind it, but when the sun goes down and it gets dark outside the wall goes down. I can see everything in space. Stars, the moon, and even planets if you look close enough. My thoughts have changed over time about what is in space. At first I thought that our planet was the only planet that had life and that there was only one small galaxy that was

I’m an only child that has moved a decent amount in her lifetime. I was born in a small city near the Polish-Ukrainian border called Przemysl. After a few years, my family moved to Krakow, and I later spent a while with my grandmother in her village, Narol. In the middle of kindergarten, I moved from Poland to Northbrook, Illinois, and attended school there for two years. I later moved to Chicago Ridge, and just last year in August, I moved to Hickory Hills. Last year was my first year at Stagg, and I enjoyed it a great deal. For my freshman year I attended Richards. Moving after just becoming familiarized with Richards put me out of my comfort zone sophomore year and I had to talk to a lot of people to try to make friends. For this reason,

After a much needed time bringing in this poem’s meaning, I have realized that my life is very much alike to this stunning and deep piece of literature. Much like The Road not Taken, the way my life worked and happened correlates to this differing and new road. Sweetness was me, and I made sure that people knew who he was. Sweetness was also like you, just an average boy growing up and playing sports. When I went to college, that’s when things changed.

Do not judge my story by the chapter you walk in on -Unknown. So when you meet me and notice that, I am always smiling and laughing do not think I am always rainbows and sunshine all the time. Though I have mostly been happy as a young adult my childhood and early teens were the harshest years I have had to face in my short extensive life. As a matter of fact, I passed all my childhood and some of my pre teens in a rough neighborhood plus I had this one person that knew how to get to me and make me feel like the most diminutive worm on earth. By the time I realized I was living in a bad neighborhood I was around eight years old, and had passed all those years sitting in the back of the classrooms of a newly built elementary

To become a success in life, we all need to learn to become a good student in every aspect of life. Becoming a good student takes much work and self-discipline. There are many ways that a student can stand out from the rest of the class. These good students are distinguished by their attitude, intellectual skills, consciousness, and achievement.

Some fathers take their sons out on camping trips to create a closer bond. These trips are cozy and relaxing and are done under safe circumstances. Most fathers would never dream of taking their sons out on dangerous trips, which is not the case in Mark Slouka’s short story, Crossing, which was published in 2009. It’s a nerve racking story about a father who takes his little son on a survival trip in a forest, which turns out bad. It is an interesting story and this study will analyze and interpret the narrator, setting and structure and will finally conclude on the story as a whole.