Personal Narrative: The Big Game

Walking away from everything you once knew and starting over is never a picnic. Leaving Iraq, and moving to America has impacted my life more than anything. I was only 4 years old at that time, and the only English I spoke was “excuse me, water please.” My family and I did not know it then, but our lives were going to change; we would become “Americanized”. Learning English was one of the massive changes that occurred, the way I dressed (culture), and even the way I had power to go to school and educate myself.

I ran back to the ball with all of my might pick up the ball with 10 sec left...10...9...8...7...6...5...4... I shot the ball! 3...2...SCORE!

It was the last games of the baseball season. We had are worse pitcher pitching for our team. And they had an ok pitcher pitching. We got to the semi finals and our coach was going nuts. I was in the locker room getting ready for the game and my teammates Austin and Tevan were right next to me also getting ready they were one of the best players on the team.

more ease than others, but here we are waiting to play the game that could win it all. It was just a little tournament to some people, but to us it was redeeming ourselves. Every year prior to that day we have gotten third in the tournament, being beaten by the same team each year. We knew it was our year, but watching the other teams play some of us weren’t so sure anymore.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

It was a Thursday evening when it all happened. Lady Titan Softball was at Tecumseh high school playing a conference game. Of course, this was my freshman year so varsity wasn’t exactly in my range. Winning the junior varsity game though, was just as important. We all knew this conference game was going to be a tough one, but we were willing to do anything to win.

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

With two seconds left in the first half, Wes Washpun was at half court and time was running down, so he shot the ball and it went through the hoop! ¨WOOOO!¨ I jumped up and down and saying to the players as they were going into the tunnel, ¨Let's go boys! We can do this!¨ UNC was up 41 to 32 at halftime.

It was that week. The time where all the pressure was on us-the eighth grade Lady Elites. We practiced every day of the week from 3:30 to 6. We scrimmaged the seventh grade, shot free throws, and went over plays. The last time the Lady Elites won PAC was in 2012. Everyone was telling us we need to win. It was so nerve-wrecking.

It was August 28th 2013 , I knew the next day would be the biggest day of my life. All throughout the week, all I had on my mind was the big game. When I woke up on that Friday morning chills would run through my body a bolt of electricity. Knowing I’m one day away from one of the biggest games of my life. The winner has a spot in the playoffs. I was so excited and anxious that I went for a run around my neighborhood because I was filled with so much energy. When I got back from my run I had a creamy peanut butter and nutella sandwich. The best sandwich I’ve ever conceived to this day. Next thing I had to do was take my shower and get all my stuff prepared for the big game.

It was the last inning, the count was two balls and two strikes with two outs. Our catcher calls a curveball, I move three steps to my right. Alex is in the stretch, he starts his motion towards home, the runner on first breaks for second base. The pitch is delivered and the ball is hit directly up the middle and over the pitcher’s head, coming from shortstop, I break to my left, I am about to catch the ball when I glance at the runner. He was sliding right into me, I caught the ball, jumped up, and threw the ball while in mid-air. It was a perfect throw, right to the first baseman’s chest. That was it, the game was over, we had just beaten the number one team in the country to advance to the world series! We all threw

The score was 5-4 we were up one set of the two kids from Wheeler. The game had been a very close match so far. The first two games going 6-4 and 4-6. The team that won this set would win the match. It was match point. We needed one more point to win the match. Cole then loaded up to serve the ball. The serve then came whizzing past my head. The kid from wheeler had a very good forehand and cole had served right to it. The kid from wheeler then returned the serve cross court back to Cole. Cole then placed a very nice lob into the back left corner of the court. This corner was also a forehand shot for the kid from wheeler. The kid from wheeler was trying extremely hard to cross all the way back over to the corner to get the ball that Cole had placed so tremendously. The kid had gotten to the ball just in time before it took its second bounce. He then weakly tried to return a lob back to Cole. Little did he know it was too short. He had hit the ball right at me at the net. The ball floated very slowly through the air. I then loaded up and got ready to hit an overhead shot.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

In 2015 I was in 10th grade, we had a basketball tournament down in Pennsylvania at Patriot High School. I went down there with my AAU travel team. Our season was starting great, before this tournament we had about four tournaments and we already had won two out of the four. We were hoping to get another championship this time around.

One day when I was in fifth grade, my volleyball team traveled to Trinity Clinton Township to oppose them in a volleyball game. They had the brightest gym in the universe! Playing volleyball there was like trying to play inside the sun. Everyone was more focused on the sun in their eyes than