Drag Racing Dreams
The heat was unbearable as I pulled up to the starting line. The
smell of exhaust gases and burned rubber filled the air. The starting
light received my fullest attention, zoning everything out of my conscience.
3...2...1...green light! I stomped my foot on the accelerator as I side stepped
my clutch. Shifting into second gear, I flipped the switch to my nitrous
oxide system. Instantaneously I was thrown back into my seat. All of a
sudden a loud pop disturbed the smooth roar of my engine. Halfway down the
track my engine shut off and forced me to coast the car to the finish line.
My teammates were already waiting at the end of the drag strip. Unable to
restart my car, we pushed it back to our pit area. My hopes were crushed
as I went over the fact that my day of racing was already over.
Drag racing is a big part of my life. All of my spare time is
spent working on my 1996 Honda Accord. With a big import drag racing
approaching quickly, I spent most of my waking hours for a week tuning my
car. Sweat and hours of hard work finally prepared my car for racing. The
interior was stripped down to the sheet metal and contained only the
driver's seat to reduce weight. The whole exhaust system was removed to
gain that little edge of power, which is essential for racing. My car was
finally race ready, waiting to tear up the track.
The following day, our race team met up at the track. In the pit
area, we changed out our street tires for high per...
... middle of paper ...
...p; Even though I made it to the final rounds of elimination I lost the
final and most important race. However, I didn't care about the loss
because I knew that instead of making it this far, I could have been
standing on the sideline with a broken car instead of racing. I realized
that any obstacle would be overcome if you pursued it hard enough.
Pursuit of happiness and achieving goals is an important part of
life. Difficulties and a lack of results should not discourage one's
strive for happiness. If the desire to accomplish something is great
enough dreams can be achieved no matter what the hardships or the time it
takes. Difficulties will make the achievement of a goal much more sweet
because of the rewards of overcoming the little kinks and knots of life.
As a barrel racer, I have gone to a lot of shows and rodeos with my pony. My pony was diagnosed with moon blindness, caused from a bacteria called, leptospirosis, that got into his eyes. As he starts going blind he relies more on me, especially with barrel racing because he has to watch out for the barrels so he can turn tighter and not tip them over, but he can not do that because it is very hard for him to see.
Looking up, you see that it is almost your turn. After getting off the hood of the car, open the door, and sit inside the vehicle. As you firmly grasp the wooden steering wheel, the scent of unleaded gasoline fills the air, the rigid feel of the leather racing seat brushes skin, and the warm touch of chrome on the shifter radiates through the car. Sliding the key into the ignition, you turn it and hear the low grumble of the HiPo 302 cubic inch engine. You shift the car into first gear and begin to creep forward to the drag strip.
I was feeling really good in this mud. My new bike was cornering perfect and hooked up so well. I was flying by guys! Half of the guys in the practice raced open class and were on 450s. I raced the lites class on a 250. You could tell if you passed a 450 just by the deep thumping sound that they made. After passing 15 to 20 guys I got really squirrely in the whoops. Almost losing it and going down, a couple guys closed up the gap I had between us. I proceeded riding not letting up a bit. Coming around the first corner on my last lap, I passed a rider on a 450. On the exit of the corner my front tire cross rutted and I slid out. In my mind I had to get up very quickly. I jumped up, grabbed my handle bars. I had my bike up and was about to hop on. All of the sudden I am on the ground and there is the guy I just passed going over the bars after hitting me. I tried to get up but I couldn’t. Trying and trying my legs were not cooperating. Bikes were flying around me. I finally crawled off the track not getting any yellow flags from the track officials. Finally, one of the track guys came over to me. I was very angry at the time. He asked me, “Are you okay?” I responded in a shout, “Do I look okay? I just crawled off the track with 20
...valuated and affirmed by those around us. For women, however, this process is often interrupted, due to the fact that “when women display leadership behaviors we consider normative in men, we see them as unfeminine, [and] when women act more feminine, we don’t see them as leaders” (Sarah Green, Harvard Business Review). This issue is felt and internalized, rather than seen, and drastically decreases women’s motivation to lead within an organization. In contrast, Morrison notes that women, while kept from the innermost circles of leadership and power, and constantly, and with high intensity, purported to succeed: “the pressure is in being a minority, set apart by gender before anything is said or done, and in being responsible for representing women as a group because there is no one, or few others, to share that responsibility” (Breaking the glass ceiling, pp. 17).
Formula One racing is known all around the world but just not known that much in the United States. As an internationally ranked sport, Formula One racing is ranked the world’s second most watch sport coming after soccer, which is number one. The most popular area for the Formula One race was at the Australian Grand Prix in Australia, which had almost 300,000 people in attendance for the race. The season for a Formula One driver last 36 races, which are raced all over the world from the United States, Monaco, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai.
The moment of truth was upon me. The official times, this includes whom qualified for finals, for the 400m relay had been posted. My eyes scanned the page for the bold letters that spell ANDERSON. As I ran my finger across the page to where the times were posted, my ears began to shut out all outside noises, leaving me alone with the thump of my heart and the inhale and exhale of my lungs. Both began to increase in speed as my eyes narrowed in on the time.
It’s race day and life in the pit crew is like being a goalie, 99% boredom and 1% panic, working 12 hours a day every day. When I arrived at LOWES motor speedway in North Carolina, everyone was in this 99% boredom phase, or their “down time”. It’s 7 a.m. and the cars of each team sit in the one story tin garage building with unfinished concrete floors looking almost like it was temporary, halfway equipped for the upcoming race and surrounded by their respective crewmembers. As I walk through the inside of this garage, big enough for twenty-five cars but filled with about fifty cars, the walking paths are carved through the clutter of race cars, roll-a-ways and loose parts. It is right to say that it is crowded. The U.S. Border Patrols pit crew had to prepare for any possible mishaps on the track. Working on and off throughout the day wanting the car to be as safe as possible but also try to exceed the natural laws of physics.
In modern military theory, the highest level is the strategic level, in which activities at the strategic level focus directly on policy objectives, both during peace and warfare. In the study of modern military strategy, there is a distinction between military strategy and national strategy, in which the former is the use of military objective to secure political objectives and the latter coordinates and concentrates all the elements of national...
Thesis statement: Leadership depends on the leader’s leadership style and there way of communicating ideas rather than the leader themselves. Both women and men believe in similar leadership styles however women prefer a more participative leadership approach.
“Women tend to act in a collegial manner and actively extend invitations to others to participate in decision making” (Taylor, 1994), but men use more of their authority to handle situations. The basics of trait leadership theory outline the person whom should be a leader, rather than the style they lead in. Genders tend to be conflicting sometimes because certain people relate to their opposite gender rather than the same. When using the basic traits of leadership assists the leader and defines the path of making an effective leader. Whether it may be a female or male in the position of a leader they must decide what method to take on the situation. They might use the contingency theory or if they are charismatic then transformational theory. If a leader has a certain trait that can motivate their followers, then a manager or management can promote them to have their peers give additional output. People respond to gender leadership differently. It varies from person to person, but one must know how to approach the situation, for example, when a new leader is appointed a person may not feel like the leader is competent because the method is different from their own point of view. In conclusion, gender determines which theory is used and how they will approach
Interest in the impact of gender on leadership is relatively new. The first studies were conducted in the US in the early 1970s when male managers at nine insurance companies were asked to characterise ‘women in general’, ‘men in general’ and ‘successful managers’. Successful managers were overwhelmingly identified exclusively with male traits. Many similar studies have been carried out since that time and all have demonstrated that the successful managerial stereotype remains male.
Growing up, all I really wanted to do is go fast. Since my father is a mechanic and a drag racer, it was inevitable that I would be involved in the culture as well. Whether it be on my bike, a dirt bike, an ATV, or cars; I’ve raced them all. I was not only interested in speed, but also improving whatever I had at the time to make it go even faster. I fell in love since the beginning, but I never questioned the reasoning behind it.
This is not about being nasty or nice – it is entirely about being achievement oriented by focusing on performance and organizational goals. Being achievement oriented, leaders have to recognize that they have to be mindful of and accountable for the choices they make because they are setting the model of what’s appropriate and inappropriate. Words matter, they are as much a form of expression for leaders as they are to poets, singers, and writers. According to Posner and Kouzes(p. 59) to be a leader, you got to awaken to the fact that you don’t have to copy someone else or follow a script and you don’t have to wear someone else’s style. Currently, there are an increasing number of women who are in leadership roles in the workplaces. It is a generally accepted as true that woman are supposed to use feminine ways of doing leadership. However, this is not always true. In some cases, women also use masculine ways of leadership. In this paper, Miranda Priestly illustrates how a female leader breaks traditional gender stereotypes and uses masculine leadership style.
Researches that support no gender differences in leadership skills, says female and male leaders lack internal validity as they are often over-reliant on narrative reviews or case studies (Bartol & Martin, 1986; Bass, 1981, 1990). Kanter (1977) argues that men nor women are different in the way they lead, instead adapts his/her leadership style to their situation and conforms to what is expected of them in the role given, ignoring their gender’s influence on their leadership style. However, researchers agree that gender differences in leadership styles do exist and that men often use a more task-oriented approach, while women, on average, rely on leadership style heavily based on quality of interpersonal relationships (Eagly & Johnson, 1990; Gray, 1992; Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Karau, 2002). Female leaders have also been described as taking a more “take care” leadership approach compared to the males’ “take charge” approach (Martell & DeSmet, 2001; Yukl, 1994; Hater & Bass, 1998). Researchers have also found that women tend to emerge as more transformational leaders while men are likely to use a transitional leadership approach (Bass & Avolio, 1994; Rosener,
I lived with my father for my entire life, but due to his work I did not spend much time with him. My father worked at a different city; and thus he comes home only a few times a month. My father is a mechanic. He works at a company that is distant from our home. This was due to the company being the only one and the first where cars were being assembled in Ethiopia. Sometimes on the weekends I used to go to his work place. He would give me a trip of the place; the station was filled with vehicles, trucks, and motorcycles. It was separated by sections. In each section there were only one type of vehicle and the assembly process was shown step by step. From a fuse to large engine of the car, components were getting attached.