Personal Narrative Addiction

In the bottom of the inning, with the chance to win, I would make the first plate appearance of the inning with hopes to start it off with a hit. Before our at-bats, Coach Sullivan talked to the team saying, “This is the moment you have all worked for. This is where all that extra work will finally pay off. This is a moment you will remember for the rest of your lives. Now GO GET ‘EM!” So I ran in the dugout, grabbed my helmet and bat, and began getting ready for my at-bat. As I was preparing Coach Sullivan came over and gathered up the next few batters, including myself, and said, “Right now! This is your time! Go do your best and good things will happen!” I was as prepared as ever when I finally stepped up to the plate to start the inning. As the pitch came towards me I swung the bat and felt a POP. I looked up to see the ball soar into the outfield and land as a base hit. The next batter was Ben Beis who, on the first pitch, watched a ball in the dirt which got past the catcher allowing me to advance to second base. Ben then did a sacrifice bunt moving me from second base to third

It was dead silent as the ball sat in the air and as if time had stopped. It was December of 2015, I was 13, my team and I was playing for 3rd place in the Colt Classic Tournament. It was a night game at Barrington Station High School. We were playing the Barrington Colts, which was weird considering they are playing for 3rd in their own tournament that they were hosting, before the game, I was talking to some of my teammates Aaron Pattis, Stephen Harris, Bradley Jenkins, Ayden Anderson and I were talking before the game, going into that game we speculated that we had this game in the bag easily as a result of how well our team was playing. Little did we know, we had another problem coming.

Pennsauken had only lost once earlier that year to my team, The Braves, while we were undefeated and I could tell that they didn’t want to lose again. After the opening Kickoff, I was in at Defensive Tackle. Every play I felt like it went quiet all I could hear was the beating of my heart, the motivational cheers from my family and the blow of the whistle. The game started with an interception on 3rd down and now the Braves were on offense. Our running back D.J. awarded the Pennsauken defense with a big run for a Touchdown on first down. He came to back to the sideline shuddering from the cold and panting like a dog. The whole team thought that we were gonna be winning the game, for the first half at least.

I took a deep breath. It was the big championship game and we had 10 minutes left on the clock and the score was 10-7 we were down by 3. We had 3 runners on the base and 2 outs I was on deck and Brooke was up to bat. I pulled her over to the side and said “you got this were only down by three and I got your back. We have no outs so take your time and hit the ball.” Brooke said “ok thanks and we got this”. The pitcher threw the ball and Brooke hit the ball. It went straight down the 3rd base line. She got a single and now the score was 10-8, I was up. The pitcher through one right down the middle I hit a line drive right to center field and got a double, MG was running home as fast as lightning and slid into home barely making it. The game was

We got changed in the locker room, listening to music that would get our adrenaline pumping. The game started with a tip-off with us getting the ball and scoring on the first play, but so did the other team. The game was very close. We would score, they would score. No one ever got ahead by more than four points. At the end of the second quarter with ten seconds left, it was their ball and we were down by two. They did a nice play and a girl got a wide open three pointer. Then the buzzer went off and we all looked at our fuming coach and knew what was about to come at half time. You know that scene in the movie, “42” about Jackie Robinson, where the other teams coach is yelling at him saying rude things? And then there’s the heartbreakingly beautiful scene where Jackie goes into the dugout and breaks his bat and screams and cries. That’s what our halftime was like. The coach yelling and us wanting to scream and cry, but still we had determination to win this game. We came back out ready to play and immediately tied it back it up. The game kept going back and forth, until the fourth quarter with a minute left and us up by four. The other teams coach called a timeout and our coach gave us a speech about if we wanted to win, we needed teamwork. Teamwork just like Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. We came back out and held the game at four points until the buzzer went

It was the seventh game of the regular season, we were winning each game by a margin of 30 or more points; we were invincible. At the time this team was no big rival of ours and we thought nothing of the game beforehand. The game started, and we were winning, like usual. Then out of nowhere the other team started to score points,

Then in the fourth inning we scored one more run making it five to three going into the bottom of the fourth at this point I was beyond scared because the coach told me to be ready to pitch. In the bottom of the fourth inning they scored one more run making it five to four we did not score in the top of the fifth and in the bottom of the fifth West Central got their first two batters on base. The coach walked on to the mound and motioned to me that I was going to pitch. I was very scared; all I was trying to do was throw strikes which I did, we got out of the inning without them scoring. Then the bottom of the sixth came where again their first two batters got on base, I thought I am going to lose the state championship for my team, but somehow I struck out next three batters. When the bottom of the seventh came and we were still ahead, I knew that we were going to win I was not scared at all anymore. I got the first three batters out to win the championship the team’s first ever state championship.

It was half-way through the second quarter in the semifinals, and the Sun Valley Vikings were up by 14. They were on our own 10-yard line, and they were handing it off to one of their biggest and best players, Jack Krump, up the middle. I was in at safety, and I ran up to tackle him at the five-yard line but he came trucking through I just bounced right off of him like a wall. I heard the crowd cheering, so I could tell he scored a touchdown. They kicked the field goal and it was, good. We then ran into formation to receive the kickoff.

Running back and forth on and off the field, trying to score as many runs as each side could when batting. Then when it came to defense, we tried our best to not let the Braves score any runs. Around the top of the fourth inning is when it all started. I was up to bat. The first pitch came in, I swung the bat and the ball escalated into the air, landing out by the fence in the right center gap. I was running as fast as I could to at least get to second base. I slid into the bag and the umpire yelled, “Safe!” I was super excited and my adrenaline was pumping like no other. I was so anxious to score it was unreal. Now there was one out, I’m still on second base. Cora Blume is up to bat, and kills a line drive into the left center gap. When a line drive is hit usually you get off halfway or at least enough where if they drop the ball you can make it to the next base, or you can get back if they catch it. Next thing I know the girl makes an

The day the team got together and fought threw a tough battle facing pinnacle high school. It was our second home game and our record was 1-2. After all of the hard work we had put in over summer, we realized we could not lose, especially in front of our home crowd. At the beginning of the game we did our usual warm-ups, I have never felt so much adrenaline pushing threw my veins in my life. After the warm-ups the whole team got in a big huddle, we chanted a chant that will never be forgotten and one day make history for the pride. After the chant we got ready for kick-off, lined up and ready to go. The crowd started cheering at the first 2 seconds of the game “go pride go, go pride go”. This made the whole team nervous, not just because there was so many

The next day rolled around. Game day. I was too excited to eat anything at all. I got to the bus, and I sat by my pitcher. It felt like the bus ride took years. Once we got there, I warmed up my pitcher, my nerves eating me alive. My coach tells us that it’s time to start the game. I was so nervous, I was having second thoughts about catching the game. But, I did it anyways. I put my gear on, and went out to the field, greeting the umpire on the way out. I get in my catcher’s position, ready for the pitches

Most recently while taking a program management course at work, I experienced information overload. This was an online course that had a ton of information that I was required to decipher and pass all tests with 100% within sixty days. The material was very informative, however, it was somewhat stressful for me to retain all the information within the allotted time, especially since this was being done during my workday. Because I was completing this training while at work, I realized that doing it after hours or even on the weekends made it less stressful for me to complete and understand what I was being taught.

Adhering to my health behavior change ended up being much more difficult than I thought it would end up being. I wanted to change my behavioral by going to the gym more often, more than three hours a week, and on a weekly basis. In the first week, I started off poorly and did not end up going to the gym once. The second week of my plan is when I was finally started to go to the gym and taking my plan seriously. I was available to meet my goal and spent three and a half hours at the gym that week. By week three, I only went for 2 hours that week at the gym.

I looked up at the scoreboard and the time read 8 minutes left. As I looked at the scoreboard I felt a jolt of energy enter my body. I had felt as if a fire was lit under me. My eyes opened as if I had just seen a ghost. I remember thinking to myself, “how can we lose this game?” I made a promise to myself that I would win 4 state titles while being at Battlefield High School. This was my sophomore year of high school and I had already won one state title, how could I give up now and let my dreams be crushed, I worked too hard for that to happen. In that moment I knew there was only one result I was going to walk off the field with, and that was with a win and another State Championship. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, “My team needs energy. They need a leader.”

With the game tied 6-6 that is when I went into my own little zone and was in my moment. The crowed was electrified and cheering us on. I thought about all the hard work the coaches put us through doing two a days and keeping us late after a hard practice, spending all of that time and hard work just for this one little moment when the game was on the line. Back to reality our quarterback had started the play and it looked like it was going nowhere and we might have to got into overtime. Then after about 6 crazy seconds he threw the ball to our halfback and he broke a couple tackles and the somehow stretched across the goal line by about 2 inches and we had taken the lead 8-6 with 52 seconds to go. When the game clock hit 00:00 for the first time in our schools history the football team had beaten Aberdeen and none of us could believe it. This was a special moment.