Writing a Narrative

In class we had to write a story from our life. This paper was very hard and very easy at the same time. On the one hand it took me like ten days to even think of the story that I wanted to write about. Every time I thought about things that I could write about from my life, they were all very personal. I wasn't comfortable sharing the things that really changed my life. Then I thought a lot about sifferent stories that I would be comfortable sharing, but they didn't have very much substance.

When I finally found a story I liked it seemed so obvious. I have spent more time in my life running than pretty much anything else and it is a huge portion of my high school experience. Once I found the story, it was so easy to write because it is something I am passionate about and something I remember very distinctly. It was weird thinking about a period of four years taken in abstract, but I actually learned more about myself while writing it.

Personal Narrative

Beating the Clock.

                He is getting closer—I take one last deep breath and remind myself that I can do this. I know what I need to do and I have trained for years to get here. He hits the mark and I take off—our handoff is perfect, my feet move faster and faster beneath me, not fast enough. I can hear footsteps behind me, now I can hear only one pair, now nothing. I come around the bend sprinting as fast as I can. Remember what you need to do, it’s time to relax a little and breathe. I’ve done this thousands of times. Each step becomes a little longer. Breathe in, breathe out, don’t let yourself slow down, relax. For a second I allow myself to look up. In front of me there is a giant screen—there is someone running on it. That someone is me! I look for the other runners but I can only see myself. I’m winning. Focus on the race, you won’t be ahead for long if you just keep staring at the screen, I tell myself. I look back at the track. I’m almost at the end of the straight. It’s time to speed up. My mind wanders again, how did I even get here?

                What am I even doing here, I’m a horrible runner, I remind myself as I step up to the starting line. I know that everyone here is faster than me. I shouldn’t have let my friends convince me to run track.

“Hey good luck man,” someone I don’t know says as he shakes out his arms and legs. He looks nervous. What must I look like?

“Yeah good luck to you, too.” I wish that it really worked like that! If only luck could make me faster.

“On your marks.” I just want to leave. “Get set.” Maybe there will be someone that is slow like me and this won’t be as bad as I think it will.

                Bang! I take off willing my legs to move faster, but they don’t cooperate. I’m already behind every other person. Try as I might they keep getting further and further ahead. When the race was over I wanted to go hide in a hole, but instead I went to look at the posted times. As my eyes moved down the list my heart sunk lower and lower as each number read a name other than mine. Finally, the very last name on the list was my own. Was I really the slowest person on my team? There had to be some sort of mistake, I was active and played sports my entire life.

                “Shane, why did you decide to run the hurdles.” My coach always talked to me a lot once everyone else had left the track. I really admired him, even though he was balding. He was six foot three, the perfect height for hurdles. His calves still showed the effects of years of running past. He was so fast! He had told me many times about how he had ran a 39 in the 300 hurdles. I was still running slower than 50 seconds.

“I thought I might like it, and honestly it was the only way I would get to run at the meets.”

“Well you seem to have taken to it! You are always the last one here.”

“Yeah, well I have to do something if I want to get better. I’m going to finish better than last at region, I just know it.”

“You have done great this year,” he said “you have improved more than anyone on the team, but I do have some bad news. Region only allows four runners to compete in varsity so you can go, but you can’t run.”

“Really?” I choked out “Well at least I got to run at all this year.”

“Like I said Shane, you have improved a lot this year. You have gotten faster in every race. Keep working hard, and you will make varsity next year I’m sure.”

“I’ll do it! I know I can make it.”

“But for now go home. I’m hungry and you’re keeping me here.”

“Ha! In that case I think I better stay a while longer.”

                The summer and fall came and passed, and it was time for run-offs again. I approached with anticipation. The race came and went and I wasn’t last overall. I wasn’t even last in my heat! I earned a spot on varsity for the hurdles, but I wasn’t satisfied. I was running in all of the races, but I was finishing in the middle of the pack. I didn’t ever make finals so I only ran one day of the track meets. No matter how fast I ran, or how much my time improved it was not enough, I wanted to be the leader, I wanted to be the best. That year came and passed and I had again improved in every race I ran in. My aspiration of becoming the top of the team was starting to seem possible. I just had to work harder.

                I lined up in front of the hurdle, “just one more, I almost have it perfect.”

“You can get it perfect tomorrow, it’s time for dinner and you need to come home.” She looked too tired for me to argue much today. She always drove by the track on her way home from work, knowing that she would often find me still there.

“Alright I’m leaving right after this one.” I take off towards the hurdle, I jump and I hit my knee. “Alright I’m leaving after THIS one.”

                “You are the pace-setter now.” My coach is talking to me, why is he talking to me?

“I don’t know how to set the pace! What if I run too fast or too slow?”

“You’ll figure it out. Run each 200 in 28 seconds, everyone else is going to base how fast they run off of you.”

“Can’t someone else set the pace? I don’t think I’ll be good at it.”

“You’re the team captain, who better to run at the front?”

As I step onto this track for the first time ever it finally hits me. I’m running in the state track meet! I made it a year before I thought I would too! I had improved so much and not only was I at the state meet, but I was confident I was locked into the finals. I hear those familiar words “On Your Marks.” I’m calm, I know what to do. “Get set.” I tense up, this is what I have been working for. Bang! I take off, a perfect start. Three, Four, Five hurdles down and I’m in first place! Six, Seven, only one more hurdle to go, I almost have it. I feel my foot connect with plastic, the all too familiar ring of plastic and metal fills my ears. The ground comes close, but I barely maintain my balance and stumble across the finish line. Two people passed me. It’s going to be close. Heart pounding I wait by the results board. “I can still make top 9, I had a good finish even if I messed up.” The list is up. I spot my name… next to the number ten. “I got 10^th?” At least I have another race, and it’s my best, the 300 hurdles.

                The gun goes off, and I am paired up against the fastest runner in the state. We take off step for step and I know I have it. As we round the bend for the final 100 meters the gun starts firing bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. “Stop the race, Stop the race.” A man is running towards us waving his arms. We slow down and stop.

“What is going on?” one of the runners asks.

“The timer never started for your heat, you are going to have to run again.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” he shouted.

                We walked back to the starting line and the race began again. I ran my hardest, but my body gives out in the last 30 meters of the race. “I don’t know what in the world happened coach, I was just too tired.”

“They shouldn’t have run through that race again until tomorrow, but you ran a decent time. You can still make finals.” My coach was trying to cheer me up, “Just so you know in that first race you were on pace for a 39, you’ll get it in the finals!” The results go up on the board, Shane Miner 10^th place…

                I’m not letting that ever happen again! I think to myself as I bring myself back to the present. I am steps from the end of the straight. I may have started fast, but I know who my competition is. He finished in 6^th place yesterday in the open 400 with a time faster than I have ever run. I pick up my pace, knowing that I am going to have to run the race of my life to beat him. I will my legs to move faster and faster, he still hasn’t caught up to me. I hand the baton off to my teammate and collapse off to the side of the track.

“Shane do you know what you just ran?” my coach is shouting from the crowd. I couldn’t concentrate or reply, it was all I could do to keep from collapsing completely. The race ends and all I can think about is those words, do you know what you just ran. I stumble over to where he is in the crowd and he turns a stopwatch and points it towards my face.

“Are you serious?” The words were out of my mouth before I could think.

“You killed it.”

“Are you sure that was my time?”

“Well it wasn’t my time! Yes I’m sure”

I stared at the screen again, 50.2 seconds! The fastest time that anyone in our school had run that whole year.

Research paper reflective essay

              I know right from the get-go that the biggest thing I have taken away from this paper is a new motivation to learn my family story. I come from a family that didn’t sit down and tell stories all of the time. We spent most of our time in the here and now. I learned about several ancestors I have never heard of before and I loved learning more about them. On that side this paper was really positive for me, but though I enjoyed researching my family stories, I had a considerably hard time writing this paper. I don’t know if it was because of what was going on in my life, if I am just bad at writing research papers, or if I just didn’t find a subject that interested me enough, but I had a bear of a time getting the length I needed. I also felt like I didn’t quite understand the citations, and as always grammar kicks my behind.

              I feel like this paper allowed me to apply a lot of things I have been learning in other classes this semester. I used principles I learned in other classes all throughout this paper and it would have been very different if I had a different schedule. I can see the things I am learning being applied elsewhere and that validates the effort I’ve put in.

Look Sister Steadman, No hands; research blog

When I was first thinking about what I was going to do with this project, I had no idea what I could write about. I figured since I hadn't heard many stories about my ancestors, that there wouldn't be many good stories out there. I was definitly wrong! I found more people and subjects than I could think about writing about. I never knew just how intimatly tied with church history my family is, even though I am a convert myself. I began with the origin of my last name, which led me to my first ancestor in the states who was prominent in every community he resided in, founded a church, and was the first man with the surname Miner in America. Then I found a decendant who was the first to join the church. His story inspired me so much I decided to change the topic of my paper entirly, and I have found that it is much more intriguing.

If everyone has to fight for their rights, will we ever make it to true equality?
That is exactly the problem. We have been hearing equality arguments for the whole history of the world. Everyone wants rights, but people in general are judgemental and seek power. For someone to be in power, they try to push down others. When someone pushes for their own rights, they often do so at the loss of others. Laws can state that everyone is equal, but if the people dont believe that, they will not treat everyone equal.

So what?
It is important for us to recognize the underlying problems that cause inequalities to surface if we are ever going to fix them. While through time groups of people will gain more acceptance, it may be to the scorn of others. For example currently it seems that as rights for the LGBT community are growing, judgements are forming about those who advocate traditional marriage laws. To truly find equality, we need to focus not on the rights of individuals, but the pregudice that preceeds inequality.