Losing My Edge
I was friends with everyone on the North team, our rivals, but during the season, we seemed liked enemies. We always talked crap to each other. "Who's going to state this year?" We would say. Back to us they would respond, "Who went to State last year?" The whole season, we anticipated playing North. It all started since the first practice. Our coach would scream, "North is practicing harder than you, they are getting in shape, they are preparing." This made us very angry and his tactics to do better did push us. The day seemed so far away, but the calendar days grew closer and closer to this well-prepared day. I made sure to eat my carbohydrates and to get enough sleep the night before. Finally I had reached the day, and school dragged on forever.
The bus ride took forever as we traveled the thawed out highways, anticipation was in the air. When entering the gym, after debarking the bus, I took a deep breath as my stomach filled with butterflies, thinking about everything I carried on my shoulders and all that was expected of me, especially when imagining everyone who would be there. My parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, peers, coaches and teammates all expected the best. "How nerve racking." I muttered under my breath. When we were in the lockeroom, I felt cadged like an animal. "This its it! It's your turn." Our coach yelled. Finally we escaped from the lockeroom into the crowded gym. This would determine who would go to the State Tournament. Excitement raced through our bones, as our names were announced for the line-up. "Jenna Osheim, 6'0'', senior forward!" My body got the shivers as I ran to the middle of the floor. The referee threw the ball into the air and the race was on. Half time, and the game was neck in neck. Time ticked away and we were both battling back and forth. "Come on Jenna, it's up to us!" a teammate of mine said to pump me up. I wasn't having a very good game and was getting down on myself. We couldn't lose to this team, as we did the year before. We battled back and forth, we would score, and then they would answer our call. The last minute lasted forever, the referee made a bad call and buzzer finally sounded, leaving us to fall short of one point to have a total score of 54-53.
A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age novel about two boys at boarding school and their friendship during World War II. There are three significant scenes of violence that occur in the novel; however, the core of the plot is based upon one. The first and most poignant is the incident where Gene, the narrator, jiggles the tree branch while he and Phineas, his best friend, are preparing to jump, causing Phineas to fall and break his leg. The next scene of violence is when Quackenbush calls Gene a lame and Gene pushes him into the water. Lastly, Gene pushes Leper out of his chair while visiting him after he is accused of causing Phineas’ injury. All of these occurrences contribute to the overall meaning of the work.
Throughout the novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles establishes a universal truth of human qualities using allegorical characters, Gene and Finny. Their final year in Devon was fortunate, but also devastating from the fear of enlisting to World War 2. Knowles developed Gene and Finny’s journey in school as an extended metaphor, comparing it to the gradual loss of innocence and the idea of ignorance creating the emotional, non-physical war. In the beginning of the year, Devon was full of innocence and it was a time of enjoyment for the students there. However, as the reality of war became more understandable for the students in Devon, their innocence began to fall off; thus, Gene becoming more matured. Despite the fact that Gene gradually matured, Finny kept displaying his innocence and selfishness until the end when he dies. During this year, Gene convinced himself that he has to excel Finny in every activity such as education, but because he assumed that Finny was trying to bring him down, he jounces the branch and shattered Finny’s leg. After this cruel accident, created by Gene’s jealousy and insecurity, they both tried to become a part of each other and in fact strengthening their friendship. Through John Knowles use of characterization and development of the allegorical characters Gene and Finny, he establishes the universal truth of losing innocence and the reality that enemies are created by the reflection of jealousy and ignorance in human heart.
The crime rating in Kennesaw went down 89% since the law was passed. It has stayed consistent for over 16 years now (Gun Ownership-It’s the Law in Kennesaw). It is these peoples right to own a gun and now it is their law in Kennesaw. The Second Amendment in the Constitution states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” (Second Amendment). The Second Amendment of the Constitution was created to help the people feel like they could defend themselves. It was given to the people just as the law of Kennesaw Gun Ordinance so they could have an opportunity to defend themselves and make everyone feel more comfortable in day-to-day
In 2014 I was determined to make the high school soccer team. Every day at 8 am at the beginning of a dreadfully hot August morning, I would get to the turf fields for 4 hours and participate in “hell week”. After a long week, I made the JV team. I was never put into the game and felt like my hard work was put to no use. My sophomore year rolled around and I tried extra hard to impress the coaches. Anything and everything was a competition to make it to the top. By the end of the week, we all gathered around the paper that had names of the players who made it. I didn’t make the team. After tears and telling myself to move on, I went to the field hockey tryouts. I knew nothing about the sport and was terrified that soccer wasn’t my go-to
As more of my teammates began to show up, I recognized most of them. However, I learned later that if I went on to play in the Spring, this would not be the same exact team I would play with. With only twenty minutes until we began,I put on all of my gear and my dad gave me a thorough warm up. Time seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, everyone was gathered together as positions were being assigned. I was originally overwhelmed with excitement, but as the game drew closer, the joy I had felt was replaced with anxiety. The lacrosse game taking place before ours ended and we entered and took our place on our bench. I recognized the opposing team’s jerseys quickly and identified them as a travel team from our area. Taking one final breath, I rushed into the lacrosse net enjoying my bird’s eye view, unsure of what was to
Not only do people debate about whether or not homework increases family time, they also argue that homework reduces the...
Legalizing prostitution could change into a more positive outcome. It is not necessarily a lifestyle that has to be permanent. It can be used to get an education as mentioned earlier. A daughter/son does not need to be a drug addict to sell themselves. Rather, for a brief moment they could work as a prostitute to get ahead financially. If legal, parents could feel secure knowing that the government has their young adult working in a safe environment. Their child is being tested for diseases regularly. Remember condoms are mandatory, which would illuminate any STD’S that could possibly be shared. They do not need to worry about pimps, or trafficking, since prostitution would be legalized. Prostitution could be personal gain. Feeling successful financially causes the opposite of low self-esteem. A young adult would feel important and know that they are actually making a difference in the economy. They would be paying taxes and at the end of the year file like all working class Americans. Perhaps they might even get some cash
Those against sex work say the rate of HIV and STIs will increase; that is not true. Prostitutes will avoid being checked for STIs or reporting abuse for fear of being arrested this leave. It just so happened that in one court case, police officers were using condoms found on women as evidence of prostitution (Fuchs 4). This not only persuades female sex workers to not be safe but also encourages average women who are not sex workers to be unsafe as well. With STIs endanger the entire population, this is not a risk we should take. With the legalization of prostitution, law enforcement will be able to devote more time to pressing issues (Harvard Law 27). We have more pressing issues such that the law enforcement could effect such as rape and sex
If prostitution were made legal, there would be certain laws to prevent the abuse of prostitutes while on the job. The basic rights of any American citizen are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By keeping the profession illegal, prostitutes are not able to pursue happiness and live their lives freely. The government is infringing on the basic rights of a human being. Legalizing prostitution has benefits not only for the prostitute, but also for the population. There would be a reduction in sex crimes, American citizens would have the freedom to choose any profession within the sex industry and it would provide economic benefits for the local and federal governments, as well as the population.
As the Tiger rolled around, there arose a question of whether or not to keep the team together or break it up and give the two seniors a chance to compete in other individual events at regionals. I actually didn't know about this possibility until about five minutes before the race began on Saturday. We were all huddled together preparing for the start. Jeremy came up to Rodney and me and told us that if we didn't do well the team might be dropped. Kicking our motivational drive into high, the four of us focused on only one thing: running the time we all knew we could. Getting into the blocks I felt more ready than ever. At the sound of the gun, I shot out of the blocks. I sprinted around the track, concentrating on making a great hand-off.
"C'mon, Chris, you get in the shower first," Taylor ordered from the other bed. "You're already up." Chris conceded and worked his way to the shower. Everyone in the room knew it too, due to his grunting and whining under his breath. Soon enough he was out of the shower and so were Taylor, Anders, and I. We ate breakfast with the rest of the team downstairs in the hotel in silence. It was too early to talk or chat. Everyone knew that one thing was going to be on their minds: winning. It was not worth discussing, either. Everyone knew that our varsity eight was possibly the strongest that McCallie had ever had, and that we had a good chance of winning some gold medals that day, if not a great chance. We loaded on the bus like ants, noiselessly flowing into one little opening. The bus ride was silent all of the way over as well. Everyone's heads, looking intently forward, were slightly jostling along with the bumps in the road. Some tried to sleep, but the tension and excitement was too much for most of them to be successful.
As the season progressed, competition started getting fiercer. I was up against girls running at a 5A level, yet, I was able to hold my own. Finally there came a tiny light at the end of the tunnel; it seemed as though I was getting closer and closer to accomplishing my goal. Along with my undefeated title came a huge target painted on my back. I religiously checked "Rocky Preps" every day to see if the competition was gaining on me. It seemed that every time I had improved, there was someone right behind me, running their personal best too. I trained during the weeks before regionals like I had never trained before. Each day my stomach became more twisted with knots that looped around every part of my stomach. I don't think I had ever been that nervous in my whole life.
...ft," Coach said as we hurried out of the health room. She was right. There was only half the time left. Warm ups seemed to fly by, and before I knew it there were only 35 seconds left on the clock. Murray's team had already headed for the bench for their coach’s last second instructions. "Let's bring it in girls," yelled Coach Moore from our bench. We all ran over not wanting to miss any important last minute words of wisdom from Coach. "OK, starters check in, you know who you are. As I have said, they are about equal in ability with us. We need to go out there and play our hearts out tonight, girls. Enjoy this, it is your last home game this season," Coach said. With that the Ref. blew his whistle to signal the start of the game. I, with the rest of the starters, walked out onto the court and got ready for the tip off, knowing I was completely prepared for the game.
I can almost remember that day like it was yesterday, I awoke like on any other school day. It was a gorgeous May morning, the rays of sun flittered through my miniblinds blinding me as if I hadn’t seen light in days. I sluggishly dragged my limp body out of my warm bed, retiring to the bathroom to perform my normal morning rituals shower, shave, brush my teeth, get dressed, do my hair, and all the other regulars. As I looked at myself while combing my hair, it hit me like a speeding express train, I was about to graduate. I couldn’t help but smile, but at the same time I felt like a part of me was drifting away. A tear came to my eye as I realized what was about to happen to me.
It was a cold cloudy Friday morning. The day of the most nerve racking championship game had finally arrived for the two rivalry basketball teams, the Kress Lady Roos and the Hart Lady Horns. Weeks and weeks of hard, aggressive, closely won ball games one after another. Only a little bit of time after that to get ready for the most important game ever; this is the game everyone has been preparing for. A ton of exhausting conditioning and an enormous amount of shooting lead up to this moment. Every girl on the Lady Roos basketball team feels excited, pumped, and ready for the game later tonight. Constantly thinking and feeling overly enthusiastic of what the outcome of the game would be like. We all had predictions of what we wanted the game to be like but it was up to whichever team wanted it the most. With all the confidence and motivation that we had that morning we just wanted school to be over with already. It did not end quickly though. School was such a drag. We all could not wait for that three-thirty bell to ring so we could hop onto that big, yellow, warm bus. Finally, the loud, annoying bell goes off. It was now, “Game Time”! Only hours away until we would play the game of our lives. As we approached the humongous school our opponents were already there. We did not want to even look at them when we walked in. We did not want to be discouraged by what kind of players they were. As the minutes passed by it was time to get ready. We could already hear our loud and passionate fans approaching the gym. We love our dedicated and supportive Kress community. As the warm-up started we all became very anxious and jittery but knew we had to shake it off and stay focused. As we had our last talk with the coach and said our glorious ...