Exercise 93, 94,98
It was finally the last week of practice before finals. The whole team was gearing up for a great meet on Saturday and Sam was growing more and more nervous. She had yet to be noticed by a college scout and her senior of sports was coming to a close. As the team lined up at the starting line for their last practice of the year Sam was anxious to have the practice over with. As she rounded the first corner she was out ahead and nearing the last corner towards the finish line. Just then, Sam stumbled over a pair of starting blocks that were left in her lane by a freshman. She fell hard to the cold ground and laid their with tears rolling down her saddened face. Her ankle was throbbing in pain and already beginning to swell. Her coach rushed over to see what had happened. His mind was growing worried due to the fact that the team desperately needed Sam for Saturdays meet and that hundreds of college scouts would be looking for her on the track. Once Sam got home after practice she layed down on the couch and iced her ankle for hours. Her mind was growing more and more worried about Saturdays meet. Would the sweeling on her ankle go down, would she even be able to walk, would she be able to even run and do her best? If she could not run on Saturdays meet she would have to kiss her dream of running at college and getting a scholarship to run on a track good bye. Would she even be able to afford college without a scholarship? All of these questions rushed through her anxious mind.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Week 4 exercises
Meet day had come and nerves were racing up and down my body paralyzing me with anxiety. My heart was pounding with excitement about what the days meet would bring. Would I win my races and take in as many points as I could possibly take in for my team? Or would I find myself falling behind and only bring in second and third place metals? As I stood in the infield of the track with my block holder, Kaylynn, at my side I began to jabber on to her about my nerves and how well I needed to do like I always did before my races.
“Kaylynn, I’m so nervous I think I’m going to pee my pants right here and now!”
“Sam, you are not going to do that with me standing right here, you say that ever meet right before you take your place in the race. It’s just a nervous pee” said Kaylynn.
“What if I don’t do well or I slip coming out of my blocks?”
“You know that’s not going to happen, it never has and it definitely won’t happen with me holding your blocks for you” said Kaylynn angrily.
“Oh fine. It won’t happen. I know it won’t happen” I said still fearful.
Finally, my race was called as final call over the loud speaker and Kaylynn and I walked over to the starting line of the 400 meter dash. The four hundred meter dash was my “baby” or the race that I hated to love. I was rarely beaten in that race and I had a reputation to hold up in that race. Holding that pressure on my shoulders made the 400 the race that made my body tremble with nerves. I wanted to do so well and keep everyone happy with me. Then, the starter motioned us to take our places in our lanes and blocks. My heart was beating faster now that it had ever before and my legs and arms were trembling. As I heard “get set” from the starter I heard
“Good luck Sam, You can do it you always do no matter how nervous you are” coming from my faithful block holder that always seemed to be there keeping me sane during meets
“Kaylynn, I’m so nervous I think I’m going to pee my pants right here and now!”
“Sam, you are not going to do that with me standing right here, you say that ever meet right before you take your place in the race. It’s just a nervous pee” said Kaylynn.
“What if I don’t do well or I slip coming out of my blocks?”
“You know that’s not going to happen, it never has and it definitely won’t happen with me holding your blocks for you” said Kaylynn angrily.
“Oh fine. It won’t happen. I know it won’t happen” I said still fearful.
Finally, my race was called as final call over the loud speaker and Kaylynn and I walked over to the starting line of the 400 meter dash. The four hundred meter dash was my “baby” or the race that I hated to love. I was rarely beaten in that race and I had a reputation to hold up in that race. Holding that pressure on my shoulders made the 400 the race that made my body tremble with nerves. I wanted to do so well and keep everyone happy with me. Then, the starter motioned us to take our places in our lanes and blocks. My heart was beating faster now that it had ever before and my legs and arms were trembling. As I heard “get set” from the starter I heard
“Good luck Sam, You can do it you always do no matter how nervous you are” coming from my faithful block holder that always seemed to be there keeping me sane during meets
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Story Idea 2
One summer night during the month of July, Jane and her friends had just arrived at Jane's aunts' summer cabin for a girls night. Jane's aunt Suzie was heading out of town for the night and asked Jane to stay with her two dogs at the cabin for the night. Easily agreeing to the task, Jane quickly invited her friends, Sarah, Katie, Ashley, and Trina. These girls were always up for a girls night at the cabin to watch some movies and talk all night. Shortly after arriving at the cabin the girls settled in to watch their first movie of the night but something just didn't seem right. The dogs were acting rather skittish and weird noises seemed to be coming from outside all around the house. After watching the first movie something goes terribly wrong and someone begins to pound their fist on the outside of the cabin and the girls all freak. They knew that no one knew they were house sitting and that it was going to be a long night. With tear filled anxious eyes the girls all began to freak. The noises kept happening and the night had only began. Was someone messing with the girls or was someone really their to make their night one that will never be forgotten?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Character Discription
At the start of practice, Sam Hartwick and the other members of the track team took their places in a circle and began to stretch. Bending down to touch her toes, Sam’s long toned legs ached with dull pain. Standing back up her slim athletic body seemed to ache all over with pain. Her nervous mind growing more and more anxious about what practice would bring today. She was tired of hearing the other girls on the team complain about the amount of running the workouts consisted of and was growing sick of them telling her to always slow down because she made them look bad while working out. Sam is one of Twedlevilles top track runners. Her freshmen year she came in and swept the meets by taking first place medals in all her sprinting events and led her team to a victory at the annual Finals Meet by taking first places in both the 200 meter dash and the 400 meter dash. Now her senior year, Sam is still sweeping meets but has never been able to grow past the nerves she encounters every night and day before a meet. The night before a meet, Sam has a hard time sleeping because she already grows nerves for the following days meet. She wants so badly to win all her races for her team. On the day the meet her nerves grow the point that her whole body is shaking with anxiety. Although her coach is well aware that her never overcome her the day of a meet he never seizes to tell her just how important her points are and how much the team needs her to win. With all the recognition Sam has received from doing so well in track and winning so many events, many would think this glory goes straight her head. But, it doesn’t to Sam. Sam is one of the only girls on her track team that lacks confidence in herself even though she’s done so well. She doesn’t think highly of herself and doesn’t like the spot light always being on her. In this way, Sam differs from her friends in that some of them actually brag about how well they do in other sports seasons and in other sports, Sam is sort of a follower and doesn’t get the recognition she does with track.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Story Idea
Living in a very small town called Twedle Ville, Sam grew up and was experiancing school and dealing with having to decide what to do with her life after high school. Sam is a very active, competitive, and athletic high school Senior. She is currently running track and is the stand out athlete in all her races. But, before every race and every track meet, Sam's anxiety overcomes her body. She becomes almost unbareable the day of a track meet. She wants so well to do good and win all her races. Her coach even adds extra stress to her on the days of meets by telling her "we really need your points today." Along with the stress of doing good, Sam had always had the dream of going on to a college to either run track or play basketball. But, coming from such a small school Sam is uncertain just how well she would do up against runners and players from bigger schools. Does Sam have a succesfull track season and lead her team to a win at Finals and does she continue playing sports in college eventhough shes from a very small town that hardly no one has heard of?
Friday, May 22, 2009
Exercise 53
There once was a little boy, Ryan, who wanted to become the best basketball player in his class. He struggled to barely walk down the court without tripping over this own two feet and wasn’t the most coordinated boy around. Every day after school he would get out his rubber basketball and practice for hours in his own driveway awaiting the arrival of basketball season.
Finally, after months of sweat, tears, and hard work, basketball season was fast approaching. Even though Ryan had invested what seemed like millions of hours to find some sort of talent in the game of basketball for himself it still wasn’t looking like try outs would go well. With all the hope in the world Ryan walked into the gym the first day of tryouts and gave it his all. When tryouts had ended that first day, he walked out of the gym disappointed in himself. He had never played so poorly in his life or looked more uncoordinated before. Every time the ball was passed to him it slipped right through his fingers and bolted to his chest. Every other journey down the court he tripped over his own two feet, plummeting to the hardwood on his bony chest. By the end of tryouts the other players had given him the nickname “butterfingers.” Ryan was so embarrassed by his performance at tryouts that he went straight home, picked up his worn out ball, and began to practice with tears pooling in his defeated eyes.
After an hour of practice, Ryan looked up to the front of the rim on his hoop and noticed a tiny figure balancing on the rim. He blinked many times, but the object was still standing there gleaming like a gem in the sun looking at him. Just then he heard,
“Young man I see the sweat, tears and hard work you have put into this game and just how much you would love to be a stand out player” said the gleaming figure.
Ryan stared at the luminous figure hovering over his hoop with puzzled eyes and nodded at what seemed like tiny women.
“I have a solution for you Ryan” said the minute figure. “Before going to bed the next during this week of tryouts, pour yourself a glass of this.”
Ryan took the bottle of clear liquid filled with sparkling specs in his hand and continued to listen to the women.
“Pour yourself a glass of this and sip it slowly until the cup is empty and tuck yourself into bed with your ball right by your side” said the women. “This here drink will turn you into the best basketball player in this town has ever seen.”
The smile on Ryan’s face was now ear-to-ear and his heart fluttered with hopefulness. That night after speaking to the angel-like woman he did just what she had told him to do. The next day at tryouts, Ryan had made a drastic turn around. He had more coordination than he knew what to do with and he was playing better than any of the other boys that were trying out. The angel-like woman visited Ryan every day after that, as he continued to practice and perfect his game on his home court.
Finally, after months of sweat, tears, and hard work, basketball season was fast approaching. Even though Ryan had invested what seemed like millions of hours to find some sort of talent in the game of basketball for himself it still wasn’t looking like try outs would go well. With all the hope in the world Ryan walked into the gym the first day of tryouts and gave it his all. When tryouts had ended that first day, he walked out of the gym disappointed in himself. He had never played so poorly in his life or looked more uncoordinated before. Every time the ball was passed to him it slipped right through his fingers and bolted to his chest. Every other journey down the court he tripped over his own two feet, plummeting to the hardwood on his bony chest. By the end of tryouts the other players had given him the nickname “butterfingers.” Ryan was so embarrassed by his performance at tryouts that he went straight home, picked up his worn out ball, and began to practice with tears pooling in his defeated eyes.
After an hour of practice, Ryan looked up to the front of the rim on his hoop and noticed a tiny figure balancing on the rim. He blinked many times, but the object was still standing there gleaming like a gem in the sun looking at him. Just then he heard,
“Young man I see the sweat, tears and hard work you have put into this game and just how much you would love to be a stand out player” said the gleaming figure.
Ryan stared at the luminous figure hovering over his hoop with puzzled eyes and nodded at what seemed like tiny women.
“I have a solution for you Ryan” said the minute figure. “Before going to bed the next during this week of tryouts, pour yourself a glass of this.”
Ryan took the bottle of clear liquid filled with sparkling specs in his hand and continued to listen to the women.
“Pour yourself a glass of this and sip it slowly until the cup is empty and tuck yourself into bed with your ball right by your side” said the women. “This here drink will turn you into the best basketball player in this town has ever seen.”
The smile on Ryan’s face was now ear-to-ear and his heart fluttered with hopefulness. That night after speaking to the angel-like woman he did just what she had told him to do. The next day at tryouts, Ryan had made a drastic turn around. He had more coordination than he knew what to do with and he was playing better than any of the other boys that were trying out. The angel-like woman visited Ryan every day after that, as he continued to practice and perfect his game on his home court.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Exercise 14 & Exercise 27
Her name is Mary. Mary is a girl that I went to school with from kindergarten through twelvth grade. We both lived in a very small town and attended the same school from K-12. Mary was a stem of a wealthy family, possibly one of the wealthiest families in my home town. Being a product of a wealthy family almost seemed to go straight to Mary's head. Not long after entering Middle School, Mary stuck out as the ring leader of my group of friends. She wore nothing but brand name clothing and made fun of us that didn't wear everything name brand on a daily basis. Becoming almost the leader of our group, Mary was quick to let us know when we were not doing something to her standards. It was almost as if we all had to bow down to her and obey her. I distinctly remember not wanting her to be mad at me. Therefore, I went out of my way to make her happy everyday so that she would still be my friend.
Why did we all bow down to Mary and listen to her like she was our dictator? I still to this day have no idea why we allowed her to run our lives while we were in school together. As high school passed by the problems with Mary only deepened. Then, more than ever, we all wanted to make Mary happy and let her lead us. If any of the girls that I was friends with at the time did something after school and we didn't invite Mary we would almost fear the next day of school. We knew that not including Mary, even though she probably wouldn't of wanted to join us would only make for a day from hell the following day.
Then my senior year finally rolled around. During this year of school I did a lot of growing up and knew I wouldn't probably be friends with a lot of the people that i was at the time. With this notion, I started to pull away from Mary and become my own person. I was tired of living in her shadow and bowing down to her day in and day out. I decided it was time to live my own life and live it my own way without Marys approval. This decision did not go well with Mary. The entire school year was filled with fighting because Mary didn't like that i was finally breaking away from her rule and becoming my own person. Now that I am going to be a Junior in college, Mary and I have finally started to patch up our differences and become civil with each other again and I'm grateful to finally be patching things up.
Today, Mary is attending Grand Rapids Community College and lives in a luxurious apartment with her boyfriend and puppy. She relaxes on her thousand dollar sofa and drinks only the best bottled water. She orders out for dinner and never really puts her stainless steel kitchen appliances to use. Her fairly new puppy sprawls out on her California King, down feather bedding and spacious floor rugs. She drives a new jeep that must get nothing more than twelve miles to a gallon and wears only the top of the line designer clothing. Her new Coach hand bag sits on her stone coffee table next to her I-phone near the remotes to her top of the line home theater center. Her parents still foot out thousands of dollars a year to support her need to have the best of best.
In the next ten years I see Mary marring her now boyfriend and moving with him to his home town of Chicago. Her parents will continue to fork out thousands of dollars to her on yearly basis and continue to make her payments on her oh so needed new vehicles. She will be a part owner in her parents business and will be rolling in the money herself. She will live comfortable and be able to own everything that she has ever wanted and never received (which can't be much). She will live in a luxurious and large house with a garage filled with top of the line new vehicles. Her closet will continue to grow in size. Overall, I don't think her taste for rich things will ever change. I don't for see Mary every changing.
In reflection, this exercise was harder than expected when it came to listing the props of this persons life. It was harder than i thought it would be to think of all the things she has in her huge apartment. It was even harder to think of the things she may have because i haven't been around in her almost two years. But, i think this was a very beneficial exercise that really exercised my brain to really things of the things in a characters surrounds.
Why did we all bow down to Mary and listen to her like she was our dictator? I still to this day have no idea why we allowed her to run our lives while we were in school together. As high school passed by the problems with Mary only deepened. Then, more than ever, we all wanted to make Mary happy and let her lead us. If any of the girls that I was friends with at the time did something after school and we didn't invite Mary we would almost fear the next day of school. We knew that not including Mary, even though she probably wouldn't of wanted to join us would only make for a day from hell the following day.
Then my senior year finally rolled around. During this year of school I did a lot of growing up and knew I wouldn't probably be friends with a lot of the people that i was at the time. With this notion, I started to pull away from Mary and become my own person. I was tired of living in her shadow and bowing down to her day in and day out. I decided it was time to live my own life and live it my own way without Marys approval. This decision did not go well with Mary. The entire school year was filled with fighting because Mary didn't like that i was finally breaking away from her rule and becoming my own person. Now that I am going to be a Junior in college, Mary and I have finally started to patch up our differences and become civil with each other again and I'm grateful to finally be patching things up.
Today, Mary is attending Grand Rapids Community College and lives in a luxurious apartment with her boyfriend and puppy. She relaxes on her thousand dollar sofa and drinks only the best bottled water. She orders out for dinner and never really puts her stainless steel kitchen appliances to use. Her fairly new puppy sprawls out on her California King, down feather bedding and spacious floor rugs. She drives a new jeep that must get nothing more than twelve miles to a gallon and wears only the top of the line designer clothing. Her new Coach hand bag sits on her stone coffee table next to her I-phone near the remotes to her top of the line home theater center. Her parents still foot out thousands of dollars a year to support her need to have the best of best.
In the next ten years I see Mary marring her now boyfriend and moving with him to his home town of Chicago. Her parents will continue to fork out thousands of dollars to her on yearly basis and continue to make her payments on her oh so needed new vehicles. She will be a part owner in her parents business and will be rolling in the money herself. She will live comfortable and be able to own everything that she has ever wanted and never received (which can't be much). She will live in a luxurious and large house with a garage filled with top of the line new vehicles. Her closet will continue to grow in size. Overall, I don't think her taste for rich things will ever change. I don't for see Mary every changing.
In reflection, this exercise was harder than expected when it came to listing the props of this persons life. It was harder than i thought it would be to think of all the things she has in her huge apartment. It was even harder to think of the things she may have because i haven't been around in her almost two years. But, i think this was a very beneficial exercise that really exercised my brain to really things of the things in a characters surrounds.
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