The Experience that Changed My Life

Some people may have a hard time deciding upon an even that has changed their lives and have taught them an important lesson. I on the other hand, have no problem at all. It is not something that I am happy about in any way at all, but it has helped me understand what truly is important in life.

The first situatin that I am going to be descibing is not my go to option. When I was in 8th grad I started to have really ba back problems. I didn't think much of it, but then it got worse my freshman year. I thought that I could just fight through the pain and see what happens, so that is exactly what I did. Sadly for me, it just kept getting worse. People told me to just suck it up and push on. Some even thought that I was faking it. Little did they know that I was not. It came to my sophomore year of volleyball and I was starting varsity adn playing full rotation. I had never been so proud. But there was one volleyball practice when I slammed my body onto one foot because I was not about to let that ball hit the floor. I got the ball, but then I hit the floor. I had a shooting pain go all the way up my leg and through my back. I was frozen. My steps were no bigger than two inches as I made my way to the bench. I knew that there was something extremely wrong. It turns out that I have three factures in my back. I was out for the rest of the year and was unable to play sports. It taught me that there was more to life than just sports. There are people in the world who will never be able to have the chance to play sports. I was out for a year; I could come back and do what I love.

I was warming up with my team for my volleyball game and noticed that my mom wasn't in the stands. It isn't normal for her to just not show up, so I got a little nervous. My grandma reassured me that everything is fine, and she just had to babysit my cousins longer than expected. We played our hearts out and won the game. I was in such a good mood until my grandma broke the news. She told me that my dad had to go to the hospital because he was experiencing strange symptoms. No one had told me anything, so I was getting frustrated. They said everything was fine and they were just running test, but I had a feeling that that was not the case. My mom would have come home if everything was fine; she didn't. The next day at school I was sitting on the stage during study hall helping Sophia make the run-through for the football game. Anita came and got me off the stage to tell me that my cousin Tara was here to pick me up from school. My heart dropped and I instantly started bawling. I felt like I was going to throw up. As I approached the commons, I saw Tara and she grabbed my hand. In all honesty, at that moment of my life, I thought my dad was dead. Once we got to the car, Tara told me that he was doing well, but they have found something. That is all she knew at the time. We then had to go pick up my little brothers from the middle school, so I had to pull it together. She just told them that he wanted to see us, and of course, the were ignorant enough to believe it while I was choking back tears. We arrived to the hospital and my older brother, Colton, was already there. I could tell that he had been crying and it made my stomach churn even more. My mom had told us that they have found a brain tumor. I had no idea what to do. I just wanted to break down and cry. I held it together for maybe 10 seconds. That was the first time I had ever seen my dad cry.

I will obviously be adding more detail about the scenery around me and the emotions I was feeling.

This has taught me a huge life lesson. Everyone runs into obstacles but you can overcome them. You may have heartbreaks in high school, you might not get the position you want on their sports team, but you are healthy and alive. Not everyone is given the opportunity to live life as they please, but you can always try. Be thankful for the people you have around you that love you. My dad is alive today, and at one point I thought I was going to lose him for ever. How could that not change your life?

My Summer Adventure

My alarm started blaring at 4:30 in the morning, but I was not going to complain about it! I got ready as fast as I could and hopped into the car. My mom and I were making our way to Orion to meet 11 others that were just as excited as I was. Once everyone had met, we headed off to the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. We made a few pit stops on the way of course, be we finally arrived. As we were boarding the plane, my heart started pounding and I wanted to cry. Airplanes are not my cup of tea. It was time for take-off. We were in the air, and everything was better. We were on our way to Europe!

We arrived in London and were moving right off the bat. Everyone was facing jet-lag, but obviously we didn’t care. We were in London! The hotel we stayed in was a little shabby to say the least. It was in the ghetto outside of London. Our luggage was put in a dungeon-like area. It was dark, cold, and the doors didn’t lock. But we all got over it and put on our smiles for the camera. We headed to the Tube and before we knew it, we were walking out of the station and staring at the London Eye. It is a huge Ferris wheel that allows you to see all of London from an aerial view. Not only did we see all of London, but we saw specific filming areas from the Harry Potter movies! We went down the creepy allies that Harry and his friends did. They were dark and the stone we walked on was uneven and somewhat broken. I developed a new love for the movies because of that trip. And of course, we got to see the royal castle. It was huge and the crowds were ridiculous! But our lovely tour guides kept us together and brought us to areas with great views. The flag that indicates that the queen is in the castle was up, so I basically feel like we should have made the cover of UsWeekly. Those were just a few of the things we did that were on the itinerary. Our lovely tour guide, Gwen, gave us loads of free time. We went shopping at the fancy stores with London fashion, ate at the different little restaurants that you can’t find hear, and yes we had fish and chips. I hate fish, but I actually loved what they served us! But eventually we had to leave. A bullet train was a form of transportation that took us to Paris, France! It was awesome, and Alec Mason was lucky enough to sit with my blabbering self the whole way there.

Paris is one of the most romantic cities in the world, but I was definitely thrown off at first. We arrived in a dirty area, but after a wait, we soon got to see the magic. The first famous landmark we visited was Notre Dame. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was huge with detailed design all over the entire building. One of my favorite things we did was go shopping down the most famous street of fashion in Paris. I didn’t buy much, but it was just awesome knowing all the famous people shop there frequently. Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed was the “Paris by Night” boat ride. It was a boat tour that started when the sun went down, and it just took us along the city. We got back when the sun was down, and the Eiffel Tower was glowing green, yellow, red, and blue. Gwen told us that it has never lit up with those colors before! We were very proud we got to see it like that. Another time we saw the Eiffel Tower, we just took a lot of adorable pictures. The sky was a beautiful color of blue with few clouds, so it made the perfect background when combined with the Eiffel Tower! The crepes in Paris were delicious. They had so many different kinds ranging from sweet with Nutella and bananas to chicken and cheese. My mouth is watering talking about them! But it was time to say goodbye to Paris, and hello to a little cubby that holds six people with enough room for maybe two. It was time for the night train that would be taking us to Italy!

We traveled to a few different cities in Italy: Florence, Assisi, and Rome. My favorite of the three was Florence. We walked around and bargained with the salesmen on the streets all day! But before we went shopping, Alli, Terrah, Haley, Adrienne, Linda, Mrs. Kershaw, Ms. Ashcraft, and I made our way up to a beautiful balcony that gave us the best view of Florence. I have never seen anything so gorgeous in my life, nor have I ever loved water so much. Besides the fact that we were dripping in sweat and extremely tired, that was one of my favorite parts our entire trip. And we got to reward ourselves with gelato, so it was totally worth it! Next we traveled to Assisi and spent our day walking around and viewing its adorable little stores and restaurants. It was a small little city with stone streets, gorgeous fountains, and huge statues everywhere. A group of us girls went to the cutest family restaurant that filled our stomachs to the brim. It was delicious. Although we loved Assisi, we were pumped to go to Rome. I fell in love with the Coliseum. It was so old and falling apart, but it was sturdy enough to walk around and enter the inside. We also got to visit the Trevi Fountain, and throw our coins in. The water was so blue, and there were so many people crowded around trying to get a chance to toss one in, too. All in all, Italy was my absolute favorite. It consisted of my favorite view, land mark, and of course, food!

This trip was an amazing experience for me in so many ways. I learned so many things about the culture and history of different countries. It is definitely something I will never forget. I got to travel the world with four of my best friends, and make new relationships with others. It also gave me an appreciation for America’s traffic laws and ice cold drinks. 

Myself as a Writer

I gained a lot more experience through out the Honors English III course last year. We did a lot of different essays, assignments, and writing styles. When I first start a writing assignment, I start with finding main ideas that I can support really well. This helps with my thesis statment. After that, I create an outline. Before last year, I just made the shortest outline possible to get it done. But I learned that if you create a very detailed outline, the essay comes together better. The next step for me is to create the rough draft. It is most definitely a rough draft, though. I like to have some one peer edit it to see mistakes I don't. After I consider their suggestions, I go over it again to see if I see any more issues. Then I try to complete my final copy. Another benefit from last year is that I discovered a few strenghts when it comes to writing. I finally got to the point where I transition from one thought or idea to another without even thinking about it. It is important to pick main ideas that you can really support and go into depth about, and I am usually good at selecting those. I also use good grammer when I write. Sometimes I have those issues, but I can catch them on my own for the most part. But when there are strenghts, there are always weaknesses. When I write, I feel like I don't sound very sophisticated. There are papers you read that just sound nice, and I feel like I lack that. I also have issues writing thesis statements. I always want to say too much. My vocabulary could definitely be widened as well.

Taking on a college course as a senior in high school is a rather tough task. I am excited for the learning experience, but I am a little nervous. One thing I loved about last year was that we turned in out "Final Draft", but you made your comments and allowed us to change it one more time. Is that something we will be doing again this year? It helped me so much. Besides that question, I am ready to take on this class. Something that I really want to improve upon is being able to write a research paper yet make it exciting at the same time. I don't even want to read my own research papers. That is how horrible I think they are. Another thing I want to get better at is my work-cited page. It is pathetic because you told us what to do step by step, but I still suck at citing my resources. I never really know what I need to do. But the main thing I want is to just become an even better writer. I want to be able to be given a prompt and just be able to nail it with total confidence.