Personal Narrative: Tar Heel Touch

I walked off the floor with sweat dripping from my hair. So many thoughts flew through my head that I couldn’t focus on anything. My junior year of basketball felt like it ended as quickly as a blink. It was as if in seconds we went from the stars of the state tournament to the embarrassments of it. I tried to forget the disappointment of it but it still will not leave. My desire and love to win games comes from the more apparent hatred of losing them. Junior year we had a chance to win a state championship, but we lost that chance. That was when I realized that I had one chance left to win. Senior year our basketball success would only be as rewarding as we would make it. The pressure placed on ourselves was substantial, and we faced trials on the road to success. In the end, we stood alone, crowned as the champions, not letting our chance slip away.

About three weeks ago, the Packer Varsity baseball team beat Berkeley Carroll school for the first time in twelve years and in glorious fashion. Tears streamed down my face as our winning run crossed the plate in extra innings, dust flying up as my teammates and I mobbed each other at the plate. Yet a few short days later, our team was blindsided by the news that St. Ann’s had pulled off back to back upsets to squeak their way into the playoffs ahead of us - just as our season seemed to be looking up, it was over.

From before day one, all our minds were set. This was the year to win a State Championship. I can’t exactly explain it, but right from the start I knew we were going to do it. I was never so sure about anything in my life and I never doubted it once.

March is one of the craziest, fun-filled, exciting months of the year, especially for people who love basketball. St. Patrick’s Day arrives, the warmth is just starting to come back; but that is not the best part, it’s all the March Madness. The NCAA Basketball Tournament brings happiness, laughter and upsets to some people and teams. Every Division 1 Basketball team in the country plays to eventually make it to the Sweet Sixteen on the bracket, in hopes of being the new NCAA Basketball Champions. Some teams struggle, while others come out on top. “The Game That Saved March Madness” written by Sean Gregory, Time staff writer who has been

As we walked out of the McLeod Center, I learned that I experience history wherever I go. I can also say that any team can be beaten on any given day. Even if your record is bad you can still exceed expectation to win. Being with my dad and experiencing this moment is one of the best memories I will never forget this moment with

Walking out onto the opponent’s brightly lit turf field setting up for the kickoff of the second half just gave me the feeling that everybody knows, my hair starts to stand up, butterflies began to flutter in my stomach, and everything seems to slow down. Looking into the stands and seeing that our hometown fans had traveled four hours in order to outdo the home crowd gave me a sense of comfort. Looking into East Jefferson’s stands and seeing that our fans, despite having to travel all the way down south, outnumbered their fans by at least 70 people. I found myself thinking that this meant just as much to our town as it did to our school and team. This feeling would be just the motivation we needed in order to finish this game

All they had to do was beat this team and then move on to beat Duke, a hard game but I believed they could do it. The game against Wisconsin in Indianapolis was a lot tighter than people believed, but I was never worried. Kentucky just finished off an 8-0 run and they held Wisconsin's defense at a standstill, Kentucky was going to go 39-0. Wisconsin had other plans though, they went on a 8-0 run themselves, and then tied the game with 3-pointer that was considered, by many, a shot clock violation. My heart stopped. Wisconsin had tied with Kentucky and they had the momentum built up as well. They went on an offensive rebound streak of 11 to have a total of 13 second chance points which was enough to beat Kentucky 71-64. Possibly the biggest upset of NCAA men’s basketball of the century had just happened, and I was on the losing side of it. Beside this moment in time, I was pretty chill went it came to competitions I was competing in, but something was different about this one. Kentucky should've won, and then they should've beat Duke to become the best college basketball team in history. This is not what happened however, they lost to Wisconsin, who lost to Duke. For the for the time in my life I felt dramatic disappointment in someone or something other than myself. That was a time a faced disappointment in memorable game, and how I still haven't dealt with yet. However, Rick Pitino, the coach for Kentucky before John Calipari, once said, “Failure is good. It is fertilizer. Everything I've learned about coaching, I've learned from making mistakes.” Everyone needs to fail every once in awhile, if we don't we never learn, if we don't we aren't

In 2016, more than ever, the team was committed to and had one goal of winning. One of our biggest rivals was St. John’s College High School (SJCHS). My doubles partner and I played the last match of the WCAC championships against SJCHS. During the season, SJCHS was one of the hardest competitors we faced but walking onto the court on the final day of championships, my partner and I knew we would fight and win. After 45 minutes, I hit an ace and we won the match that put us in the lead to win the championships. October 30, 2016 was the single most exciting and overwhelming day for the team all season. Everyone’s hard work paid off.

I felt that this was the game in which our team found our groove and finally connected together for an entire ninety minutes. From then on we took each game one step at a time and considered our opponents one at a time, and in doing so, focusing on the smaller goals allowed us to achieve our greatest goals. This season is the first time in program history that women’s soccer at Fairleigh Dickinson has gone undefeated. Not only that, but it is the first time FDU has won the women’s soccer title in the NEC tournament and therefore, it is our first birth into the NCAA tournament. Having all of these accomplishments all happen in senior year makes these moments even more special, and looking back on it now, having the hardships of our past is what prepared us for greatness this

It was the middle of October of 2013. In the south, this is a great time of the year, its called football season. It was a pretty big year for the Mobile Christian Leopards football team, as this was the year that we were supposed to go the 2A championship. It also was a big year for me as well, as I was senior and sat out my junior year. I was in great spirits that year. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad year for me.

We kick off the regular season with a resilient opposite, after a long hard fought game we lose again and fall to 1-9 and our doubt begins to set in for our team. Our Crusaders team really needs something to get us going and we get just what we needed, our starting third baseball Tyler Worrell back for his senior year. That was the perfect answer for our struggling Crusaders team. Now the game is on, we start rolling and ripping opposites to shredders by winning the next 19 out of 20 games. After winning our 19th game we start turning our heads for the state playoffs.

The team was ready, we had been working extremely hard for the past seven months for this. We were all in great shape and very rested. A few of the returning players were meeting me at my house to carpool to the final game of the state championship tournament. Everyone knew that the hard work had paid off when we won the semi-final game the preceding day.

The place where my personal legend had started, the abandoned church. It was in the church where I dreamed of the treasure being by the pyramids in Egypt. It had caused me to follow my personal legend, learn new things, meet fatimah, the Alchemist and everything else on my quest. The Abandoned Church taught me the importance of home and the recognized. Little did I know that the whole point of my journey was for me to learn and grow, allowing me to understand that the secrets of being happy and accomplishing my personal legend are not always far from us, instead it is at home, where we all started. I did not have to travel for many years to find my treasure, but if I dreamed of the treasure to be at the church and not have to travel, both the

The major I wish to pursue at the University of Illinois-Springfield is Political Science. In the spring of 2015, I became more acquainted with politics when I found out about a senator from Vermont named Bernie Sanders on Reddit(a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website) and when I took AP U.S. Government & Politics that fall. Like a lot of young Americans, I found myself galvanized and inspired by Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, what a shocker. But I truly believe in his message which been the same since he was fighting for civil rights as a student at the University of Chicago and throughout the over 30 years he’s spent in public office. That to me is what's most inspiring and it’s what motivates me to dedicate my life to fighting for what I believe in and to seek a life of political activism.

As a child, people will always remember certain destinations that stick with them that made a good impression. I have a place that not only made a good impression, it changed me. It made me think off all the things in life people take for granted; places, people, activates. This place brought all though special things in life to one place where I can enjoy them all at the same time. The Oregon coast. Traveling there, as a kid was always special. Waking up early in the morning and driving the long trip there, going through forests, valleys, and cities.