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.