Personal Narrative: A Multi-Colored Bean Bag

My passion for track and field began with a Nike advertisement. At age ten, I opened the newspaper to a two-page spread of the hometown distance running legend Steve Prefontaine overlaid by a paragraph of inspirational copy. It concluded asking, “Where is the Next Pre?” The story of his small town Oregon roots, gutsy racing style, and ambition to be the best resonated with me like nothing ever had before. I told myself I was the next Pre, and then tore off for my first run through the streets of Eugene, Oregon – “Tracktown USA”.

My personal Artifact is a baseball my son and I caught at the Giants game. It is white,

One activity that has defiantly created a change in my life is ice hockey. I’ve been playing hockey since I was seven years old. I know that playing hockey has changed my life is because it’s taught me time management, responsibility, discipline, and physical conditioning.

Walking down through the tunnel of the Hershey Arena has been one of my most decorated moments in my high school career. Last March I had the amazing opportunity of reaching the State Tournament for wrestling. Not only was it the first time I have reached the state tournament, but also Scranton Prep’s first wrestler.

Understanding the mental game of golf is crucial to being competitive. If you 're serious about competing in the game of golf, you need to understand, that without a good mental game, you have no game. Regardless of the physical ability you may possess, if your mental game isn 't up to par, you are going to have a hard time competing at high levels in this sport. Focus and mental stamina and know-how are key components in any winner 's arsenal.

I started playing lacrosse as soon as I could walk. Since then, the game has become interwoven into who I am and I have developed a deep passion for it. Life tends to get stressful, whether It is constantly worrying about grades, due dates, or tests. As I handle all of the stress high school has to offer, I often forget about the kid inside me. Lacrosse allows me to bring out my inner kid. For almost two hours everyday, I am able to throw on pads, grab a stick, and forget about everything in life. It allows me to get away from all the noise that I constantly hear throughout my day. This is the one activity I would keep doing because without it, my youth would evaporate.

Without the slightest doubt in my mind, making Alabama’s all-state honor band is my proudest achievement. Of all the prideful moments in my life, earning a spot in all-state shines brightest of all; it took more effort and dedication than any other challenge I have ever faced. However, as physically and mentally draining as all-state was, one week later I wanted to do it all over again; this taught me a few things, namely that I especially love music, have an extremely competitive drive, and am willing and capable to accomplish any goal I set for myself. In other words, playing with the all-state honor band is my crowning achievement because it taught me who I am.

As I got back to my stance, I started breathing heavily. Thoughts of getting hit by a ball again, zoomed through my brain over and over again. Now number twenty eight was ready to bat. The first pitch Abby threw was a monster. I knew that this was going to be a strike. But I guessed wrong, the batter took a big, hard swing at the tiny, yellow ball. The ball skidded to shortstop. As she fielded the ball perfectly. She gripped the ball tightly and let the ball fly. I was all ready for the catch, I had faith in myself that I was going to catch the ball. Even though my right arm ached, and my arm started to drop, I knew that I was going to do it. What I didn’t know is that all of this I thought of, was not going to

I believe that my greatest skill is baseball. In my youth, I found that I didn’t enjoy sports as much as my parents pushed me to try them. Quite possibly the competitive nature of sports was not enjoyable and I felt that staying within the comforts of home was better. However, something clicked after following baseball for a season and I urged my parents to sign me up. The first season of baseball that I played was a learning experience, but was exciting the entire way. I became one of the best players on my team, only to learn that I was in fact the last player selected to fill out the roster for little league. Undersized and young, I ascended through little league and was actually selected for the all-star team my final year, an anomaly for a player with my experience. I battled injuries following little league because I was forced to overcompensate for my lack of size to compete and keep up with the competition. Ironically, I watched the big players “become” smaller as I grew in size in my sophomore year of high school.

Today is the big day. This is the story where I truly learned to believe in my abilities and skill. I laced up my shoes and belted up my pants. Today is the day where my game changes or it doesn't. Today I was trying out for the travel team. The pinnacle of sports teams in my school area. When we arrived at the field my stomach was in knots. I looked around at the blank grassy field and I knew I was ready. I saw the other kids throwing lasers to each other and I knew I was accurate, but couldn’t throw nearly as fast. My hand was shaking as I threw to someone I had never met. My throws were rainbows as slow as molasses. Surely the coaches would see, I was doomed. Next we moved on to fielding, the coach hit us four balls each. On

I had come up against something that I wasn’t good at, and it angered me. Everyday after practice for the next week or two was no different. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting better and what the point of all this suffering was. One night after an especially hard workout I had a talk with my dad, who was an exceptional baseball player in his day. I asked him what I need to do to get better. His response was simple but set the tone for my new mindset for the rest of my baseball career. He told me that all I had to do to get better at baseball was “work hard”. With this new thought in my head I went to practice with one goal in my head, to “work hard”. At times during those that first month of practice, I started to lose sight of this new vision my dad had given me, but was refreshed fully when I started to notice changes in my baseball skills. I started to pick up the pace more and more everyday. This was not due to natural ability or god given talent, it was due to the fact that I showed up to practice everyday and gave it my all. The term “ hard work” was given new value in my

It was the summer before my freshman year when I made the most influential choice towards my life. In a spur of the moment decision I signed up for the Verona girls golf team. I made my mind up in 6th grade that I was going to do volleyball in the Fall because pretty much all the girls did volleyball and thought they were the best players ever. I never even thought about doing golf. This was my mindset until I really started to think and thought to myself, “I’m not even good at volleyball. I wouldn't move up in the rankings as fast as I would for golf. Is it really worth playing a sport I’m bad at with all my friends? Or playing a sport I’m good at with none of my friends”.

Have you ever had a passion for something that you love so much that you keep on doing it no matter what time of the season it is? For me that was going to club wrestling at Coe College to practice for two months. My Dad, and my wrestling coach Jeff Voss suggested that it would be a good idea to go to these practices. I didn 't want to at first, but then I thought that if I do the practices I will get better. Also I didn’t want to do track.

My artifact is a fox pinch pot. It was handmade by me. Choosing colors, it ended up orange and black. My pinch pot is important because it was something I made. Every pinch made, took valuable time and endless effort. my pinches represent the choices that molded me into me today, the pot represents my open mindedness, and the fox represents my ability to survive tricky situations

Why are there no lines? Why are there no goals? Why were the benches not moved? Just some of the things that went wrong on 9/12/15. That is the day my soccer team won 8-0 at our first home soccer game. The tensions were high and we were stressed no lines or goals. We had to move the benches all while trying to get prepared for the game. Coach Troy was running late as usual coach Nick was late for the first time and we were trying to warm up without him and get a handle on what to do about the field.