Although it is tiresome I have to constantly spend around 3 hours practicing marching and playing my music every Mondays and Tuesday during summer and fall, the adrenaline rush made me more focused and on task. A single marching band practice is like a well-oiled machine. The routine is simple, our group either goes to the parking lot of the football field. Then, we practice playing and marching. Every once in awhile, we get 15 seconds to drink water.
However, he somehow talked me into running. I can still remember my first practice that summer, I was beyond nervous because I did not know anyone. The girls on the team were so welcoming as I ran my first three miles on Roaring Run Trail. After that day, I knew cross country was the sport for me, but I of course did not admit that to my dad right away. Now thousands of miles later, I have finished my fourth season of cross country and my fourth season of track is just beginning.
My dad had got done cooking breakfast, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and sausage. It looked so good. Me, being the 11 year old I am, decide to load my plate up. I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat all of what I had grabbed, but I still grabbed it all because I wanted to make sure I had enough energy for gymnastics. After I ate half of what was on my plate, I go outside and practice cartwheels.
"Tomorrow is going to be a great day" everybody thought. We all went to bed wondering how it's gunna turn out. The day of Thanksgiving Everybody got up still wondering how it was going to be. Everybody was coming at 12:00, because we were gunna start eating dinner at 3. As we were getting ready, cleaning the house, cooking the food, it turned 12:00 and we heard a knock on our door.
Clemson game every year. We would make sure we did not make any plans the weekend of the game so that we could all be together. Instead of going to the game when it starts, we would arrive early and bring our grill to cook our own food until game time. The tender steaks and juicy hamburgers we cooked kept us full until after the game so we did not have to pay ten dollars for a hamburger at the game. My step-brother Jacob and I would walk around the stadium and collect all of the detailed plastic Clemson cups that people would leave behind after the game had ended.
My father and grandfather were the only ones in his family that enjoyed watching football. My grandmother was a large critic of the game and loathed football in its entirety. My father would go out and have a big lunch with my grandfather every weekend to watch football without having to about my grandmother turning it off. My mother’s love for football did not begin until high school. She was a cheer leader in high school and would cheer for her team every Friday.
It happened on June 11, 2015. My lacrosse team won our regional quarter final game the previous day—I scored my personal best of five goals and was named Player of the Game. As a reward for the win, my coach gave us a three hour practice the next day that was strictly conditioning—leaving the seniors 30 minutes to go home, shower, change, and drive to our Senior Dinner at Bowdoin College. I raced home from practice, my sweat sticking to the car leather seats, music blasting, and the wind in my hair. I had the future on my mind: playoffs, graduation, summer, and college.
My parents were driving me to practice on a Monday in November at seven o'clock. As we were on the road driving, a group of bikers came up beside us out of nowhere. My mom did not see them at first and almost slammed in to the bikers. The bikers had no sidewalks to ride on, so they were forced into the street with all the cars which can go faster than them. Another time, one of my friends, Jacob, was training for the upcoming soccer season and had to run two miles a day.
One Friday afternoon headed home, kind of in a hurry to get home so my friend and I could get to the football game. My dad hates it when I’m late, and I was kind of running a little behind because I had to pick up one of my friends from her house and she wasn’t ready. So I was speeding home and I turned on my county road, probably 200 yards from my house when I got behind this really slow car, it’s a two lane road so I decided I would pass them on the opposite side… BAD DECISION. They were turning into the Christmas tree from which was on the other side of the road, so they had to turn across the other lane. So right about the time I decided to pass them, they decided to turn and BAM I got t-boned.
That night when I got home, my parents and I made some plans for the summer. “I want to go to an indoor pool” I said so bad that I actually couldn 't stop saying it. Since I was super eager my parents set the date to go the following day. Mom explained, "If you want to go you would have to do all the packing so I can make food right now so we can leave early in the morning.”I ran up the stairs as quick as lightning and started to pack more than needed. By the time I finished, it was ten at night.