Cross America Personal Narrative

Running Reveals Me Your own culture can be a topic that is hard to grasp. It is much easier to see someone else’s culture because they are different from you. In the personal essay, “Ethnic Hash” explains, “Do I even have an ethnicity?”

My life three years ago was pretty average. I had two parents and two siblings. I went to Notre Dame High School where I was interested in playing football as an offensive guard and working out. I even had a part time job on the weekends helping my dad renovate rental homes. Then one day at football practice my heart began to race during a simple blocking exercise.

A quote I have heard many times throughout my life is “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result.” This has constantly been harped on me by my dad all throughout my swimming career. Whether it was my breaststroke or freestyle I always strove to do better but wouldn’t always come up with the results I was looking for. That is when my dad would mention this quote and explain to me that in order to get better I would have to put in the extra work and do things I had never done before in order to get better. Many times I never really listened and didn’t take the time to do what he suggested in order to improve myself.

I had spent months training for those 20 minutes. I prepared for every possible thing that could have gone sour during those fleeting moments that would determine how my freshman season would end. If the start was too slow I would gradually speed up after mile one. If my hip injury worsened mid-race I would alter my stride to avoid pain. What about if I completely fell apart one mile in?

School athletes overcome many obstacles in their lives such as injuries, late nights, hard practices, and plenty of physical exhaustion. Injuries for women happen often in basketball, especially ACL tearing. The ACL is one of the four main ligaments that hold the knee together. Without this ligament, your knee would collapse while doing physical activity, such as, twisting, cutting, or landing a jump. Tearing my ACL was an experience that I will never forget and constantly recollect on to push myself to better accomplishments.

Everything happens for a reason Football in the United States and Canada is a game that is played on a field with two teams, and eleven players on each side. This game involves many things such as play on the offense and defense, with different ways to score or obtain points. The game of football is broken up into four fifteen-minute quarters with a twelve-minute halftime break at the end of the second quarter. This game consumes the United States and creates a culture of its own, with everyone that played the game at some point or another to dream of playing it professionally. There are different levels to football in the United States from high school, to college, and then the pros.

Entering my first high school track and field season was so exciting--it was the start of my discus career where I could actually compete amongst other talented throwers in a span of many more meets. I felt confident since I had always been advanced in my years of throwing since I started at around the age of 9. Learning from an experienced and intelligent coach, I felt there was no way I could not succeed, but then a problem arose. The man who had been coaching me for almost five years could no longer work for the track and field team. I continued to work with him on my own when he was available, however, it appeared that other teammates were suffering due to the lack of guidance and critique.

Practice: I decided to go to my field site for the first time on a Wednesday. I met one of my friends at her dorm around 3:30 so that I could walk with her to the fields. This was a bad idea on my part. She said we were running late and that we had to run there, however I haven’t exercised since my freshman year in high school.

The day of my first ever high school XC meet started out like an ordinary day. I woke up at 6:50 and went downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast. I had a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch(my favorite cereal). I’m Usually the first one up so as I was eating the rest of the family started to make their way downstairs. Once I was ready for school my mom offered me a ride to school which does not normally happen.

One personal thing about me is that I fell in love at a young age. People always say that it is impossible to fall in love at a young age, but that's not true. I met a young man and we went on dates, and got really serious. We dated for about two years, and we started to argue almost everyday. He told me harsh things and I still ran back to him, because I thought things would work.