Personal Narrative: The Race Car

yelled as he pulled me up. Right as I looked into his deep blue eyes, I felt like I was in one of the cheesy romantic movies. It felt as though there was a spotlight shining on us, and we were the only ones in the world.

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.

The Festival return to Greenfield, MA after being in Turner Fall, MA for a couple of years. I had never been in the Art Block, but found one of their stages The Wheelhouse one to be inmate setting like you what you might find in a coffeehouse. I heard Julia Cira sing on that stage and she had a beautiful voice. One that I like much better than Rosie Porter. It's just a good one to have for ballads. Its a strong one. She plays an electric guitar as well as sings. She was accommodate by a man on drum set and another young woman on an electric guitar. That woman played it well. I listen to her sing a couple of songs and she sang beautifully each time. According to her, They were doing full on rock songs and they sound like very nice quality

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.

“Hey, kids, you wanna go for a ride in the car?” Mama yelled out the front door of the little white four room house our family of six lived in. We kids jumped up and down, yelling, “Yes, yes.” “Where we goin, Mama?” “Just get in the backseat of the car and you’ll see when we get there,” Mama replied as she scooted under the steering wheel of our beloved light gray Kaiser that was our only means of getting anywhere. Four kids crammed into the backseat, halfway sitting on top of each other and arguing the whole while over who’s going to get to sit next to the door. “First we have to stop and pick up Daddy from work,” Mama told us as she tried to calm the excitement we were all exhibiting, “then you‘ll find out where we’re goin.”

As far as true passions go, I've always worried about being a lousy artist. This was evident in the time I was assigned to design my team's logo for our Race Car Club's first competition. Graphic design was untouched territory for me along with leadership as I was not only the artist of this club but also the president.

The horse ride changed mike's opinion of his horse and himself because at first the was some trouble with getting him on the horse,but once he got on he started to enjoy himself and realize that just because he has a disability he doesn't have to limit himself.according to paragraph 1 it states how he felt or his opinion of getting on the horse. "No, stop it, I don't want to!" I yelled. Some of the horses in front of the barn looked at me, and all of the people stared, but I didn't care. Not being a sweet little angel like the disabled kids they show on TV is what gives my life meaning. I raised the volume of my voice enough to send birds flapping out of the shade trees. "You have no right! Isn't this supposed to be a free country?".

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.

When I was in seventh grade I fell in love. Not with a person, but a sport. I fell in love with track. I enjoyed the workouts, the races, the team, the events, the meets, but most of all I had found a passion for sprinting. I worked everyday during practice to prepare for the meets. I pushed myself as hard as I could and never gave up. I couldn’t get enough of it. I was mad for the feeling of your lungs bursting for air and your legs burning with pain. The long, exhausting workouts, the freezing practices, and the crazy memories you can make. There was nothing about it that I found unlikeable. Track was consuming my thoughts, I couldn’t stop. I was in love with it in every single way.

“Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol reminds me of my favorite show Grey’s Anatomy. Whenever something serious was about happen this song will start playing and I would know someone is either going to die or have a sad moment. In an episode, Callie Torres, one of the characters, got into a car accident when she was pregnant. Her soon to be wife was driving and Callie asked Arizona if she would marry her and Arizona wasn’t paying attention to the road when a car came out of nowhere. When Callie got to the hospital the other doctors got to her into a ER room when they started singing “If I lay here, if i just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world.” This episode was my favorite one because it was a musical episode and I loved how it wasn’t like all the other episodes.

“Cross Country? What do you do, run from South Carolina to California?” I remember asking my brother this when he told me what sport he participated in. I was in seventh grade, but it was past the time I could sign up for it that year; however, the next year I decided to give it a shot. This one decision in middle school shaped the next five years of my life.

When I was about 15, I pursued the art of driving. Before then, I was always super excited for when it was my turn to drive. I would always go sit in our vehicle, pretending that I was driving back and forth to town. So, when I started driving, I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know before and some really surprised me. They helped me and they could also help many other people too. I learned three things when beginning to drive, the rules of the road, how important it is to be a defensive driver, and the key is to have confidence.

I have never been very skilled at driving a car. I got my driver’s license in February of 2015. No one really ever took the time to teach me how to properly drive. Of the required 50 hours one is supposed to drive before they get their license, I probably got around 20 at the most. Since I got my license in February I have almost been in numerous traffic accidents. This paper is going to highlight some of the more memorable events where I have almost crashed my car. Some of these events include; running red lights, hitting stationary objects, driving on the wrong side of the road, and running into large pot holes. Many people do not trust me to drive their cars, or to ride with me on long distance trips. I also have a hard time trusting myself

As a timid freshman, I attended my first annual cross country camp. The first morning arrived, and at 6AM Dave Gerlach, my coach barged in echoing, “Good Morning ladies today is a beautiful day for a run.” This saying was repeated every morning, regardless if it was actually a beautiful day to run. While he yelled this through the cabins simultaneously flashing the intense lights impairing our eyes, worst if you were on the top bunk, which was not in my favor at the time. Keeping my eyes closed, I lugged myself out of bed scrambling to find clothes out of my disheveled suitcase. Over, under, around and through, Meet Mr. Bunny Rabbit, pull and through. And Just like that my shoes were on ready to run. The first run was a simple 6K. As the gun went off I thought to myself, Easy...right?