Going for the Gold
“The Milkmaid and Her Pail” show us how us, as humans tend to anticipate what will happen in the future. We often picture what our lives would be like if certain tasks or goals were to be accomplished, however; things do not always happen the way we would want them to. In my mind I had already won the race and found a good spot to place my trophy when something unexpected happened, and it was then that I realized why it is that they say “Do not count your chicken before they are hatched.”
I was lying in bed, listening to music and using the computer when on Facebook I see an event coming up. The flyer was a bold red color and therefore, caught my attention. It was titled “ROCK RACE AUGUST 30”, I thought to myself “I remember
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doing this race three years ago, and wanting to have that huge trophy with a rock on it, that bold red hat and some extra cash would not be so bad either.” The difference between three years ago and now, was that this time I was actually going to prepare for it. Cycling was not just a sport to me anymore, it was a competition and I wanted to win. However; those were not the only reasons. I was part of the team that was hosting that race and to me that meant pressure. I could not let my team down. I had to make my team look good and get a spot on the podium. My teammates and I organized a meeting to come up with a strategy. The strategy to make Rock Cycling’s Team win! It was our race and therefore we had to win it! During the meeting we all had positive vibes. We were all determined to succeed. It did not matter which one of us took first place as long as we all worked together and made sure we took that first place home. I trained hard every day for two months.
During the week I had a certain training to and I would do that training just as it said. Every day during the week I would ride my bike for about twenty-five miles. I could feel my skin getting tanner, but I didn’t mind. I liked to feel the wind in my face, the smell of nature, and admired the view of the many different animals that would cross my path, such as cows, rabbits, deer, and many birds. I really enjoyed hearing the sound of the cow go “MOO”, it made my training much more entertaining and somehow eased my pain from my work out. Probably my favorite part was the speed. Each day I would get faster and see myself closer to my goal. I knew I could accomplish it, I knew I could do it. Every day I rode I rode with a purpose and motivation to win. My weekends were not for me anymore, they were for my training. I would wake up at six am and eat some warm oatmeal and then head it out with the guys to ride. “Cycling provides a personal challenge to demonstrate our individual resolve, and enhances our teamwork”, Teresa Betetti states. I was not always able to keep up with them, but I felt myself getting closer and closer each time, each ride was a challenge and I loved it. I would feel how the workouts that I did during the week would make me stronger. I started riding thirty miles each weekend, then forty-five, then fifty-eight miles! I was really feeling positive. I knew I would win. The trophy would be another one to my …show more content…
collection, but it would by far be my favorite one. I would also finally have a hat that says “WINNER”, and I would wear it everywhere just so people knew that it was me that had won among all those other girls three times older than me. And with the money I would go shopping! Because what girl does not love shopping? Each time I would do friendly rides with my competition I knew I had it. I knew I was going to win because I riding with them made me feel much more confident. I knew Laredo girls were not my competition so now I only had to worry about any girls coming from out of town. It is one day before the race.
I make sure to wash my bike, make sure everything is working properly, and that it is spotless clean. I also make sure to get my clothes ready for when they call me up to the podium and go to sleep extra early because I know I have a very important day the next morning. It is finally race day! “This is where all my hard work pays off” I think to myself. On the way over there I am listening to my favorite music and I am feeling really good! I have not even started the race yet and I feel like I have already won it. I am warming up until they call my category up to the line that’s when I start to get butterflies in my stomach. The countdown started and we took off. The pace was nice and steady, in some parts we really pushed it, but I was able to hold on and maintain the pace. Cycling is all about strategy and working with your team, so that is exactly what I did. We played it smart so none of us will fall behind. The closer we are getting to the finish line, the more confident I feel. I still have plenty of energy for the sprint and in my mind no one can beat me. The last miles mainly consist of long hills, but with the right technique that’s no problem. Five more miles toward the finish line when it happen… I got a flat. I could not believe it, I felt the bike slowing down and in my head I was think “please don’t be a flat, please don’t be a flat.” When I turn and check I slightly had any air left. I quickly got down and looked for help but no
one was around. The group kept on going when a support vehicle picked me up, by then it was too late to fix it. I got in the car very bummed out. I was so disappointed. I really wanted to win because I had truly worked hard for it, but apparently it was not for me. All in all, I let myself down. I got ahead of myself, making plans and getting over confident to in the end have nothing. I will definitely share this with my brother Brandon, who is also a cyclist, so he will not have to experience this. He will probably say “that will never happen to me, plus I am already the best”, but the day that it does happen, I will be there to tell him that he should have listened to me. To me it was definitely a learning experience.
Tanta Rose influences Hanna’s life greatly by telling her what she should do and what she should not do. In the short story “The Bicycle “by Jillian Horton as well as in examples from my experience, it is shown that the choices that you make will have a great influence on your future because the future is very sensitive and highly dependent on the present resulting in as events that might seem insignificant
The morning has came it’s race day your heart is pumping you are ready for the announcer to say 10 seconds!!!!!You are talking to your friends before the race and the
We can transform our life by altering our thinking process, and the stories by Shirley Jackson and Chris Abani emphasize on changing the thought. Shirley Jackson’s story, “The Lottery”, conveys a great ironic tradition of a certain American community at some time in history, probably not that old. Similarly, “The Lottery” by Chris Abani also explores a similar tragic story about a loss of a life, and presents the life and survival as a lottery, which is never certain. In these regards, both these stories express a common theme of a traditional belief and a tragic end of a life but in a very contrasting fashion and settings.
I was feeling really good in this mud. My new bike was cornering perfect and hooked up so well. I was flying by guys! Half of the guys in the practice raced open class and were on 450s. I raced the lites class on a 250. You could tell if you passed a 450 just by the deep thumping sound that they made. After passing 15 to 20 guys I got really squirrely in the whoops. Almost losing it and going down, a couple guys closed up the gap I had between us. I proceeded riding not letting up a bit. Coming around the first corner on my last lap, I passed a rider on a 450. On the exit of the corner my front tire cross rutted and I slid out. In my mind I had to get up very quickly. I jumped up, grabbed my handle bars. I had my bike up and was about to hop on. All of the sudden I am on the ground and there is the guy I just passed going over the bars after hitting me. I tried to get up but I couldn’t. Trying and trying my legs were not cooperating. Bikes were flying around me. I finally crawled off the track not getting any yellow flags from the track officials. Finally, one of the track guys came over to me. I was very angry at the time. He asked me, “Are you okay?” I responded in a shout, “Do I look okay? I just crawled off the track with 20
When I was pregnant with my first child, a friend told me, “Remember, daddies do it different. And that’s okay.”
In my words, Sociological imagination is a way for a person to look at their life as a result of their interaction with society. It can explain why a life is lived with way it is lived and all events, decisions, successes, and failures that have occurred. In my life I have encountered many situations, problems, opportunities and events. I can use my sociological imagination to examine these and figure out why I am the way I am and also why I have chosen to do certain things
From the day we are born and until the day we die, as human’s beings, who have the luxury of time, spend it in pleasurable activities, such as sports, clubs or do nothing at all as our purpose: We are desperately try to find confirmation of our place in the world. Many humans have no idea what their purpose is in life; so we want to reassure ourselves in deities from religions or some of us rely on science. We ask questions, which are still unanswered in order to clash with our inner and outer selves to explore the fate we have yet to overcome or fail. The Epiphany Machine by David Burr Gerard, mocks people’s desire to know their fate in the world. In his short story Gerard uses a psychological approach with rhetorical elements such as characterization
A secret agent. A professional football player. A fire fighter. These would have been my responses when asked that inevitable question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Family, Media and Peers are said to have influenced my views concerning the role I am to play society. All of these factors had one thing in common. They all were influencing me to behave according to my gender. Everything from the clothes I wore to the toys I played with contributed to this. Even now as a young adult my dreams and aspirations are built around the gender roles that were placed on me.
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.
While studying the three legs of the western philosophical stool- truth/wisdom, justice, and art/beauty- it became clear one must develop their own perspectives, beliefs, truths, and meanings regarding each leg. The interpretations of truth and meaning come individually based on experiences and different backgrounds. Each piece of artwork described represents a form of peace, coming from within, and a price paid to achieve it. Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid and Girl with a Pearl Earring depict beautiful women intent, almost mesmerized, on their goal, against a dull background. Similarly, Claude Monet’s obsession with his garden at Giverny can be seen in works such as Waterlilies, Water Landscape, Clouds, 1903 and Waterliles, 1897/98. Like Vermeer, Monet’s focus on the simplicity of a scene is not only breathtaking but paints a story of peacefulness. But just like the shadows in each of the four works, peace casts its own
When I got there I did not see any other girls over there. They called the first heat for the 400 meters. The first heat is seniors and state runners, obviously not freshman who suck. I started to walk away and the person calling the meet told me to come back. I explained to him I'm a freshman and can not go in the first heat. He told me I had to because no one else was going. In that moment I knew this was going to be very terrible. Evidently the race started and 200 meters in I was so behind. I feel like I could not breathe. Many thoughts were passing through my head like faking passing out or maybe dying. I finished dead last and was so embarrassed. My coach was dumb mad they put me in the first heat. I was upset because I never got last and especially since all my friends were there.Many of my track friends came up to me and told me not to worry because I was only a freshman and I could not compete with them. I’m not even sure if that's what they said, I blocked out everything to just focus on my embarrassment and anger. I was internally dying. How did this happen to me? Why me? Call me an overdramatic teenager but in that moment disappearing seemed like a great
Shortly after, he fell back to 10th place. Harris passed the baton to Zach who took off like a gazelle attempting to put us back in the race but there was a 15 meter gap to 9th place. He came around the first 400m and had closed the gap to about 10 meters. Along the final 100 meters of his leg Zach was closing in on the runner in front of him and passed the baton to Cameron in 10th place right behind 9th. You could tell from Cameron’s painful facial expression that he was doing everything he could to stick with the runner in 9th but the other runners were very talented and he handed the baton to me in 11th place with a 15 meter gap from 10th and about a 30 meter gap from 9th. I took off running as hard as I could and before going into the final lap I had already moved us up to 9th place, we had our medal. My heart was throbbing, it was getting hard to breathe, and my legs felt like they couldn’t move. But I wasn’t going to settle, I wanted the highest place possible for our team. So I kept pushing and when I crossed the finish line I had a new personal record in the 800 and what I thought was 7th
Gandhi once said, “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” “The Rocking Horse Winner” written by D.H. Lawrence is a perfect example of how a mindset that is filled with twisted moral values will lead to a bad destiny. Lawrence created many instances where actions that are based off of anxiety, greed, and selfishness, ultimately lead a family to having a terrible destiny.
We reached Geralt’s shop, Knick Nacks, and headed in. Seeing It ransacked, I checked every inch of the store for a hidden room or loose floorboard. Nothing.
It was December 4, 2014 and it was snowing outside. I was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework. All my family was downstairs, so I was all alone. My English teacher told us to write a paper about how I am different from my classmates. I was thinking about what in my life makes me different and slowly my whole life was playing like a movie in my head. The first memory that popped into my head was my fourth birthday party. It was supposed to be the best birthday ever. My dad was going to come. It was February 24, 2002 at my birthday party. There were so many people there, but I was so focused on my dad coming, no one else seemed to matter. My cake was pink and yellow with a bicycle on it. I had a red and blue inflatable that kids were