Throughout my life, I have had so many different experiences and journeys with people I will never forget. Some of these experiences have lead to not so good endings, but all in all they have made my life what it is and has made me a stronger person.
One of the first experiences that sticks out the most is when I had my appendix taken out the summer of the year 2007. My sister Leah had her appendix taken out when she was a younger girl and I remember telling my mom that I never wanted to have my appendix taken out because it scared me so much. Well, unfortunately my appendix did not agree with me and wanted to come out. It was two days after the fourth of July, and I was spending the night at my cousin Shelly and Chad’s house in Mayville because I was going to babysit the kids the next day. I woke up during the night with bad stomach aches and puked about five times. In the morning Shelly had told me to go home and get better. Throughout the day, the pain got worse and I was getting worried. My mom eventually took me into the emergency room to find out what was wrong with me. We had to wait quite a long time before any tests were done. They finally got me in to take a CT test and told me that my appendix was due to come out. I was very scared because I had never gone through something like that before. The surgery went well and they got it out just in time before it was going to explode. I went home the next day and got a lot of cards and gifts from family and friends. This was a scary but interesting experience I went through, and I will never forget it.
I have always been known to not be the most gracious person in the world. I tend to trip over smooth concrete when just simply walking. When I was in kindergarten, my cousin Amy and I went sledding at her house on a warm winter day. We were so excited to go sledding we went in just our normal school clothes. To make a long story short, Amy had told me to watch out for a stump that her dad had just recently cut down. After the first couple times we went down, everything was going smooth and we were having a lot of fun. Until one time I went down, I steered a little too much and was headed straight for the stump. I tried to stick my leg out to miss it but ran right into it. It hurt a little bit but I did not think anything of it and just kept on sledding. When my mom came to pick me up, I went into the bathroom and found a big hole in the back of my leg. I panicked and went to go show my mom. She at the time thought I had just put a hole in my pants and told me we would fix it up at home. I then pulled up my pant leg and showed them. My mom and my aunt Becky just about fainted, and Amy said it looked like fish eggs. My mom took me into the emergency room and I had to get stitches. I still have the scar on my leg to remind me just how bad of a sledder I am.
I have also broken my left wrist. I did this when I was in fifth grade at Bethany. We were at play practice after school one day and a bunch of my friends and I were sitting on the ledges above our hooks for our backpacks and coats. When I attempted to get down, my foot slipped and I headed straight for the ground. I put my hand down to catch my fall, which lead to a broken wrist. My wrist was deformed over to the right and I could not move it. My mom came to pick me up and took me into the emergency room and I had to have surgery to get it put back in place. I had a pink cast all the way up to my arm pit for six weeks. It was so difficult to do anything when I could not move my arm. I was lucky to have it be my left arm because I am right-handed.
As you can see I have been to the emergency room a few times. But that is all a part of the journey of life. It is what makes your life interesting and keeps you going. My family likes to look back on some of the clumsy things I have done and we all just laugh about them, like the time I stepped on a rake and got a huge black eye. That really hurt, but was also hilarious because you usually only see that happen on cartoons.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Softball. Not just a sport.
As I step out onto the field, a sense of power comes over me. I feel as if everything around me, is waiting for my first move I am about to make. When I reach the circle and put my cleet on the rubber, I think of nothing execpt the ball in my hand and the pitch I am about to throw. It's between a fast-ball, drop, rise, curve, or change-up. When it leaves my hand and soars to its destination, I anticipate what will happen next. Will she swing, will she hit it, or will she miss and the umpire behind calls strike one? As I wait the mere 4 or 5 seconds, I realize she swung, and missed. I throw again, same thing, strike two. Just one more throw and she's out. I grip the ball with all my might and let it fly. Strike three. There's no greater feeling than hearing the umpire yell behind the batter, "You're out." All the happiness inside me comes out as my teammates and fans cheer loudly.
As you may have already guessed, I am talking about softball. I have been playing softball ever since I was a little girl, about 8 years old. I have loved the sport ever since. When I first started playing softball, I would have never guessed I would become a pitcher. Let alone, the picther of our high school varsity team, freshman through senior year. I always imagined myself playing short-stop, but that all changed when I was asked to give pitching a try. I was in about the sixth grade. I said, "Sure why not, I'll give it a try." It pretty much stuck ever since then. Right then, I had become a pitcher, and I was so excited to start learning and practing everthing pitching required.
As I got older, I practiced and practiced. When I reached high school I became the pitcher of the varsity team. Being a pitcher is very hard work. Learing the different pitches, and learning which one to throw at the right time and taking in the factor of where the batter is standing in the box. You have to be in control and aware of everything around you. Your teammates will look to you for guidance and support. You also have to be ready for the unexpected. Once that ball leaves your hand, you have to be ready for it to come right back. That has happened to me plenty of times during my softball seasons, and it makes you be on your toes throughout the whole game.
Like I said before, being a pitcher is very hard work. I usually stayed late with my pitching coach after practice every day to go over more things, show me how to improve, and do more drills. Most every weekend I was out on the field practing, not to mention practicing during practice. But what made me practice so much was my love for it, and how much fun I had playing. I loved being a pitcher, every part of it.
The person who introduced me to pitching was one of my good friends' dad. He was the one who taught me everything I know about pitching and softball for that matter. He believed in me to pitch, so therefore, I believed in myself. If it wasn't for him, I would not have found out that I had the potential to become a good pitcher. Throughout the years he became not just a coach to me, but a good friend and role model. He taught me so much just about life itself also. I really can't thank him enough for everything he has done for me. He made the whole experience fun and exciting and wanting me to learn more and more. I owe all my awards and acknowledgments that I recieved throughout high school to him even though he claims it was all me. That by far is not true, yes I had to put in all the hard work and determination, but he taught me everything.
So as you can see, softball was not just a sport to me, it was more of an experience that made me stronger as a person. It taught me responsibility, hardwork, dissapointment, teamwork, and how to have faith in yourself. By learning these things, not just through softball, it has helped me overcome some diffuculties my life has brought me. I am also very proud of myself for sticking with it and believing that I could accomplish becoming a good pitcher.
Now that I am in college and don't have the oppurtunity to continue playing, I still find the time to go and throw the ball around. I miss playing softball with all my teammates and will miss it for the rest of my life. But having those years in the back of my head, brings a smile to my face. I will never forget playing softball and I will never stop thanking my pitching coach and my coaches for everything they have taught me.
As you may have already guessed, I am talking about softball. I have been playing softball ever since I was a little girl, about 8 years old. I have loved the sport ever since. When I first started playing softball, I would have never guessed I would become a pitcher. Let alone, the picther of our high school varsity team, freshman through senior year. I always imagined myself playing short-stop, but that all changed when I was asked to give pitching a try. I was in about the sixth grade. I said, "Sure why not, I'll give it a try." It pretty much stuck ever since then. Right then, I had become a pitcher, and I was so excited to start learning and practing everthing pitching required.
As I got older, I practiced and practiced. When I reached high school I became the pitcher of the varsity team. Being a pitcher is very hard work. Learing the different pitches, and learning which one to throw at the right time and taking in the factor of where the batter is standing in the box. You have to be in control and aware of everything around you. Your teammates will look to you for guidance and support. You also have to be ready for the unexpected. Once that ball leaves your hand, you have to be ready for it to come right back. That has happened to me plenty of times during my softball seasons, and it makes you be on your toes throughout the whole game.
Like I said before, being a pitcher is very hard work. I usually stayed late with my pitching coach after practice every day to go over more things, show me how to improve, and do more drills. Most every weekend I was out on the field practing, not to mention practicing during practice. But what made me practice so much was my love for it, and how much fun I had playing. I loved being a pitcher, every part of it.
The person who introduced me to pitching was one of my good friends' dad. He was the one who taught me everything I know about pitching and softball for that matter. He believed in me to pitch, so therefore, I believed in myself. If it wasn't for him, I would not have found out that I had the potential to become a good pitcher. Throughout the years he became not just a coach to me, but a good friend and role model. He taught me so much just about life itself also. I really can't thank him enough for everything he has done for me. He made the whole experience fun and exciting and wanting me to learn more and more. I owe all my awards and acknowledgments that I recieved throughout high school to him even though he claims it was all me. That by far is not true, yes I had to put in all the hard work and determination, but he taught me everything.
So as you can see, softball was not just a sport to me, it was more of an experience that made me stronger as a person. It taught me responsibility, hardwork, dissapointment, teamwork, and how to have faith in yourself. By learning these things, not just through softball, it has helped me overcome some diffuculties my life has brought me. I am also very proud of myself for sticking with it and believing that I could accomplish becoming a good pitcher.
Now that I am in college and don't have the oppurtunity to continue playing, I still find the time to go and throw the ball around. I miss playing softball with all my teammates and will miss it for the rest of my life. But having those years in the back of my head, brings a smile to my face. I will never forget playing softball and I will never stop thanking my pitching coach and my coaches for everything they have taught me.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Play On Children. (TED)
After watching the short video clip, it made me realize how kids can really be genuienly smart and that they sometimes don't get enough credit for the little or amazing things they can do. When kids are given the chance to create something real and unique they put their whole heart and soul into the project. Which is what the kids did in this video. They saw the opportunity to make something great and they accomplished just that by putting their heart and soul into it. Which includes having the confidence and trust in each other that they can complete the challenging task together.
Just as the guy mentioned in the video they have trust in themselves to not hurt themselves, or to not hurt each other. Having the trust in yourself and your peers is extremely important when working with each other. These kids looked at each other as teammates and put everyone's ability to good use.
Actually, I believe that we can learn from kids and how they can be so open to each other's ideas. They do not disregard anyone or any ideas, but they use them to benefit the project. As adults we are so quick to judge or not listen to what each other has to say which makes alot of the problems we have in society now days. Maybe we should let the kids be the voice sometimes and listen to what they have to say. Kids have such raw and intelligent ideas, but because they are kids we can ignore them so easily.
That's why I thought that video was great, because it gave the kids to show people what they can actually do and express their feelings through building something out of a variety of different things and make it their own.
I work with kids for a part time job, and I can see how each and every single one of those kids have such a wide variety of different views and ideas of so many different things in life. Whether it ranges from how they play with blocks and what they can build or just simply sitting down and having a normal conversation with a child. Have you ever had a simple conversation with a child? I think it is so interesting on what they have to tell you, they will tell you anything you want to hear, just ask and they are not afraid to talk.
I know that people sometimes give kids the stereotype with being naughty or not ever listening, and in some cases that may be true. But not all. Kids need the chance to be heard and need to be praised with the good and wonderful things they can do. You could see in all the children's faces that they were having the time of their lives, and that was so good to see. To see the kids at their best and when they are most happy is when they can build something and be proud of their work. They sense a feeling of accomplishment which gives them the confidence that they will be well off in this world.
I think TED is a great thing for kids to have the oppurtunity to prove to not only themselves but to others that they are capable of producing rare and unquie ideas and projects. And mostly being proud of what they build. It teaches them motivation, perseverance, teamwork, trust, unselfishness, just to name a few.
Even though i do not know those children, I can say that I am proud of each and every one of those children. For pushing themselves to see how far they can go to make something great, even if it doesn't always work the way they wanted, they still had fun, which is one of the most important things.
It also gave the children an oppurtunity to make friends with each other while working together. Im sure that those friendships had a good starting foundation, because it mainly dealt with the issue on trusting each other, even when it may not have worked out the way they wanted. You could see that the children trusted each other and that they were all having the time of their lives. The smiles said it all.
Just as the guy mentioned in the video they have trust in themselves to not hurt themselves, or to not hurt each other. Having the trust in yourself and your peers is extremely important when working with each other. These kids looked at each other as teammates and put everyone's ability to good use.
Actually, I believe that we can learn from kids and how they can be so open to each other's ideas. They do not disregard anyone or any ideas, but they use them to benefit the project. As adults we are so quick to judge or not listen to what each other has to say which makes alot of the problems we have in society now days. Maybe we should let the kids be the voice sometimes and listen to what they have to say. Kids have such raw and intelligent ideas, but because they are kids we can ignore them so easily.
That's why I thought that video was great, because it gave the kids to show people what they can actually do and express their feelings through building something out of a variety of different things and make it their own.
I work with kids for a part time job, and I can see how each and every single one of those kids have such a wide variety of different views and ideas of so many different things in life. Whether it ranges from how they play with blocks and what they can build or just simply sitting down and having a normal conversation with a child. Have you ever had a simple conversation with a child? I think it is so interesting on what they have to tell you, they will tell you anything you want to hear, just ask and they are not afraid to talk.
I know that people sometimes give kids the stereotype with being naughty or not ever listening, and in some cases that may be true. But not all. Kids need the chance to be heard and need to be praised with the good and wonderful things they can do. You could see in all the children's faces that they were having the time of their lives, and that was so good to see. To see the kids at their best and when they are most happy is when they can build something and be proud of their work. They sense a feeling of accomplishment which gives them the confidence that they will be well off in this world.
I think TED is a great thing for kids to have the oppurtunity to prove to not only themselves but to others that they are capable of producing rare and unquie ideas and projects. And mostly being proud of what they build. It teaches them motivation, perseverance, teamwork, trust, unselfishness, just to name a few.
Even though i do not know those children, I can say that I am proud of each and every one of those children. For pushing themselves to see how far they can go to make something great, even if it doesn't always work the way they wanted, they still had fun, which is one of the most important things.
It also gave the children an oppurtunity to make friends with each other while working together. Im sure that those friendships had a good starting foundation, because it mainly dealt with the issue on trusting each other, even when it may not have worked out the way they wanted. You could see that the children trusted each other and that they were all having the time of their lives. The smiles said it all.
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