Something that Made a Mark

Author's Note:

The reason I chose this particular piece is because last year I never got the chance to finish this piece. In this piece I was trying to work on word choice. In the past I haven't quite succeeded in that category.

Have you ever been in a moment where you can feel someone behind screaming I told you so? Where right as you’re having an amazing time, the world comes crumbling down on you. Then, you're starting feeling pain all in one spot. And you look down and say "Wow that's a lot of blood."

One day in second grade my brother Jordan had a basketball tournament and our entire family came along. During one game I was hanging out with my brother's friends little sisters. We were just acting like us which means running and having fun. We were talking under the bleachers while playing a game of tag and we saw the person who was “it” so, we ran away. As the clumsy person I am, I tripped on the edge of the bleachers on a sharp piece of metal that sliced a chunk of my skin and it was gushing blood. Then, I told my friend to tell her mom. I was lying on the ground screeching extremely loud with pain. And as mad as I was at that moment, everything of course had to get worse. There just so happens to be a little boy that was staring at me with a blank face and he said "Are you okay?” In the most annoy ingest voice in the world at the worst possible moment.  So, I just ignored him. Everyone in the whole building was staring at me and all the basketball games stopped and more people were staring! My dad came over and the assistant coach came over as well with a medical kit and wrapped pre-rap around my ankle. He wrapped tons of layers around my ankle. Next, my dad picked me up and was walking fairly quickly to our van and my mom drove off to the nearest hospital with me and family friend.

What I remember next, was that I got to the hospital and nurses all came to me and put me in a wheel chair and rolled me into a room, while me mom was signing papers for me. The nurses put me on a nice comfy bed and I got to watch T.V. Next, they started putting this goop on me and they said it was supposed to numb the area. The numbing medicine felt cold and was dripping off my ankle. About 5 minutes later my ankle felt like it couldn't move and if it did then I would have no control over it and I would fall.

Then everything was ready for the doctor to come in and begin the procedure. I was so scared while he was putting gloves on and picking up utensils that seemed intense and sharp. Everyone was prepared for operation but the only thing is, that I wasn’t, I was terrified of what was going to happen next. My stomach was starting to swell up and I felt like I was going to pass out.

Later on, very late at night they finished putting stitches on my ankle. My mom’s friend gave me the bracelet she was wearing and said “You can have this for being so brave.” Then a nurse gave me a wheel chair once again and I was practicing using it, and I ramming into things and making a lot of noise. Eventually when we got to leave the hospital they let me take the wheel chair with me for the rest of the time I was at my brother’s tournament.  Once we got back to the hotel I was extremely excited, the only reason I like going to my brother’s tournaments is to go swimming. So, I asked my mom if I could go swimming and she said no because she didn’t want any of the stitches to come out or anything to get infected, which made me want to scream and act like a little child. The only thing that I could do while everyone was swimming was sitting with the parents and eating food. I was not happy. At least there were different varieties of delicious snacks. After my long dramatic day of pain I started get very sleepy so I knew it was time to hit the hay but, before I fell asleep my dad gave me a stuffed animal, and a huge bag a tootsie pops. Which proves a point; when you’ve had a bad day it can always get better with candy! Now, speed forward about 5 years.

Still to this day I have the mark to that one day I tripped under the bleachers. I will never forget any of the little moments that happened that day; candy, the bracelet, wheel chair and many more. The interesting thing about my scar is that you can tell when I grow because the scar moves up my leg! When I got the mark it was at my lower ankle almost my foot, and now it’s about 2 or 3 inches above it. Every now and then when my dad and brother see the scar on my ankle we retell the story and my dad says it look like an L meaning “Listen” because he told me not to go under the bleachers. My brother says it’s an L for “Loser”. And I personally think it looks like a boomerang.

I think the lesson in all of this is that when your parents tell you something you should probably listen. When you think something will be tons of fun it might end up in trouble and your parents know best. And when you don’t listen to them you might end up like me, a girl who was looking for mischief and ended up with a huge cut on her leg, and now a scar for life.

Penguins

If you think of birds what’s the first thing that pops into your head? For me it was flying. I thought that because birds all fly right? That statement is wrong though, because an ostrich, turkey, emu, and a penguin cannot fly.   

Most of these animals can’t fly because their bodies are too big and their wings are too small. An ostrich makes sense why it can’t fly because they’re enormous while their wings aren’t so much. What doesn’t make sense to me is why a penguin can’t fly. Their wings seem big enough to get the job done. So why can’t they fly?

The penguins do have wings but, their wings are meant for swimming rather than just flying in the air. Penguins do “fly” underwater at the speed up to 15 to 25 miles per hour. As the penguins being adept swimmers, penguins spend a lot of time underwater. Some penguins spend 75 percent of their lives in the water, which is more than half their life. The thing that the penguins do have in common like any other bird is that they do lay their eggs, and raise their chicks on land. What I think is interesting about the penguins is all penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere, except penguins that live in the zoo.

I think it’s amazing how just a few birds can’t fly. Why is the reason that these few birds didn’t get the chance like any other bird? Personally I think it’s the reason what makes these birds so unique and different from all the others.

Running (Cross Country)

Lots of things in your life you have to rely on someone or a group of people. That’s the reason why I love running so much, because in the end you have no one else to blame but you.

Before you’re racing you’re cheering on your other teammates, but when it’s your grades turn your stomach swells up and it feels like you have to go to the bathroom even though you just went. Then, the referee starts the countdown from 10 minutes, to 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.  Once, you get to one, everyone gets behind the starting line, get in your team box, and put your best runners in the front. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5….BAM! The gunshot goes off and everyone starts sprinting to get out in front. As I’m starting my pace for the race my body starts feeling num. I start thinking “I hope it won’t be like this for the whole race.” Then sure enough it is. I start looking up in front and see wow I’m in 4^th place out of 200 hundred girls! Now, getting passed a couple of girls but, I stick with it. As, my throat starts getting severely dry and I start getting a cramp on my left side, I knew something was going to go wrong. Once I starting hearing the crowd screaming and yelling, I started picking up my speed, then before you know it I’m sprinting to claim my spot. And just like that I got 6^th place and a medal to remind me of that. Only words and a little detail can describe how I feel during a race. Everywhere in my body I feel num. Sweaty and Hot, because its 80 degrees outside. Lastly, I’m 100% in the zone.

Besides meets, you have practices. Personally I dislike practices more than meets. Number 1 even though you run more at the meets it’s harder to concentrate when you have your friends all around. Especially if you’re someone like me, who loves to talk, it’s very tempting during practices. Whether at meets you know nobody around you. At practices our schedule is incredibly basic, run for 40 minutes come back stretch then a couple work outs then you’re done. The only thing I truly love about cross country practices is sometimes we get to go on free runs. A free run is where you can grab a partner and a watch or phone, and then run wherever you want as long as you’re still around the school district. The thing that always pays off from practices is how well you do at the meets. Then there’s the next day at school.

It’s always a great thing coming to school and feeling like a pop star. Even if it’s just like that in your head but, once you get into your first hour class the fame hopefully begins, I thought. As someone starts speaking on the announcements and the topics goes from the Pledge of Allegiance, to Drama, then finally cross country. As I hear my name I start having a big old grin on my face. This made the start of my day a good one. Sometimes times the littlest things in life can make your day.

Even though I love getting the glory at school, or after the meets or maybe at practice I always have to make sure I was satisfied by what I did. And if I do my best then it never matters what place I get at the end of the day. The one thing about running that makes my day is that no matter how much T.V I watched, or how much food I ate, if I run, and run well I feel accomplished for the day.