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Personal Narrative: Life After School Practices

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My head bobbed in the water while the calm water moved up and down and back and forth in a constant wave. Before I could react, my head went under, held down by two large hands wrapped around my neck. Screaming, clawing, and kicking, I fought whoever pushed me farther down, my efforts futile. My hands latched onto those of my attacker; my hair swirled across my field of vision. The air escaped as water filled my lungs, making it increasingly difficult to breathe. More and more water weighed me down, hundreds and thousands of feet deep. My body gave out; fighting back became a lost cause. Tighter and tighter, the hands squeezed. Breathing was impossible. Awakened by a cold shock through my body, my hands immediately flew around my neck, panting …show more content…

The swimmers, my second family, saw another part of my personality; however, that side connected to the empowered self more than the vulnerable one. After school practices allowed me to escape the terrors I faced at home, and I desperately needed them. Unfortunately, avoiding home came to an end as soon as swim practices ended and as soon as I stepped foot out of school. Anna and I walked out of the locker room like any other day, waiting for my father to pick us up. When I spotted his car, I gathered all my belongings and led the way to our ride home. Eerie silence filled the drive the entire way, with only an occasional word or two—asking about school, pointing out construction, noting the places we passed. When Anna exited the car and walked through her front door, my father pulled out of her driveway and looked at me through the rearview mirror. “You never listen to anything I tell you.” He shouted with his voice only growing louder with each word. “If you don’t listen, you’re not going to do anything again.” It wasn’t the first time he raised his voice because he disapproved of my doings. “Your friends aren’t going to help you. They’ll abandon you just like what I’m going to do to you if you don’t

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