Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Journal #9
Its halloween and i had to work. Work went all right we were not very busy because everyone was out trick and treating, but for some reason it went by really fast. I know its a kids day but still i wanted to be home and hand out candy! haha i think im still a kid at heart. I was kind of sad that I couldnt be back in Minnesota today to see my little brother and sister dress up and go trick or treating. It made me realize how much i miss home. But i get to go home in about 2 weeks for thanksgiving. I cant wait! Just to see my family and all my old friends, its going to be the best time. Im just staying for 6 days, i think that is going to be long enough though. Its a really small town up there and not much to do at this time of year. I have a house on a lake up there so in the summer its really fun cause we go boating and jet sking.. and during the winter we take out the snow mobiles! But in the mean time of all that there is nothing ever to do up north.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Narrative
So Close
By: Brittany Plate
Looking up at the crowd seeing my moms worried face looking down on me, lights shinning on me while the sweat drips down my face, I start to get paranoid. I step up to the blue, soft bouncy floor, as I walk to the middle and hold my position for my routine. I take a look at my three judges sitting at the table waiting for them to give me the ok to start. Thoughts start running through my head, and the judges don’t look nice. One of the judges raises her head to signal that she is ready, while the other two are still filling out the score sheet from the last gymnast. My arms are starting to get tired as I’m still holding them above my head waiting for the music to start. I take a quick look at my team mates and then finally my couch. My eyes start to fill up with water, I’m getting really nervous, my couch whispers “You’ll do great Brittany” as a couple of my team members shout “Come on Brittany, score a 10!” I know that I have to at least score higher than a 7.8 to get our team in first place. Finally after what felt like twenty minutes all three judges nod their heads giving me the “Ok” to start. I count to five, give my coach the ok to start the music. I was off! Nobody was going to stop me, I practiced my floor routine everyday for the past week. I knew it by heart. It was the last competition of the season and I had to end it with a bang.
That was the start of what I thought was going to be the best day of my life. Ever since I was five years old I have been in gymnastics. I guess you could say that I started young. It was my favorite thing to do every week I looked forward to going to class and at home I would make my mom help me practice my cartwheels. In second grade, my gymnastics teacher told my mom that I had something special, I was very limber and was ahead of all the kids my age. She bumped me up to the next level. This couldn’t stop me. Going to gymnastics class was not enough at age eight I felt like I could be doing more so my mom signed me up for a one on one class just me and the couch! Now I was going two days a week. By the time I was ten I was going to gymnastics everyday to practice. Well I wouldn’t call it practice, more like fun. We even ended up making our down stairs living room a gymnastics floor by buying soft mats. By the age of ten I was going to my first meet.
I remember being the youngest and having all the other kids look down on me, even my own team mates. The meet was at home so I was comfortable with the surroundings. I was so excited. My family was there to watch me. My first routine was on vault, this was my favorite. All I remember is running as fast as I could and jumping on the spring board and over the vault I go. I landed it perfect. Looking over at the judges I await my score. I take a glance up at my mom and I see her smiling from ear to ear. Finally I hear 8.2. My mom starts to scream, and my coach is jumping up and down. It takes me a few seconds to realize what I just did. As I start to run to my couch, I can hear her saying “ I told you, that you could do it”. The rest of the day went amazing. On beam I scored a 7.8, bars a 8.0, and floor 8.9. From that day on I knew that gymnastics was what I wanted to do. It was the only way that I could express my self. It was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I had to set a goal and reach it.
The next day at practice I had a meeting with my couch. She told me that she wanted me to join the traveling team and go to different states to compete in gymnastics meets. But because I was only ten years old my mom decide that I couldn’t join and that I had to stay in school. This just meant that I could travel around the state of Minnesota, but could not travel outside. All through middle school my dream was to be in the Olympics‘. I would watch the gymnastics videos and want to be just like them. I knew I was good enough I just needed to get grow up faster and talk my mom into letting me travel outside of the state.
By the time I was fourteen, my mom finally gave in and let me join the traveling team. It was during the summer so I wouldn’t have to miss school. In the 3 months of summer I travel to 15 different states. I received eight first places when combining all my scores from bars, vault, beam, and floor. Three second places and two fourth places. The trophies were amazing, every chance I went home I would put them all over my room. I couldn’t ask for anything better to do with my life.
I just turned fifteen and the summer was coming up again, time to start my traveling. I have waited all year for this. Our team was going to try and make it to 15 more different states again. My body was starting to get drained and taking a turn for the worse. I was at my last competition for the summer doing my last routine. All I needed was a 9.0 or higher to win. My last routine was the floor, which is my favorite because its all tumbling and it’s a good way to end the day. Or so I thought…
I hear the music come on and for a split second the room gets really quite and super cold. I pull myself together and before I know it I’m doing my routine. I pass right through the first floor move getting ready to start my second. As I make my way over to the corner, I take another quick glance at my couch. I know this is the biggest part of my night. I have to accomplish a Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel spring. I see the tape in the corner across from me which is where I need to land, not one foot out. I take a deep breath and start to run, Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel CRACK! I hear the sound of my ankle just make the worse noise I have ever heard. I try and finish my routine. Taking a few steps back getting ready to do my front flip I jump up, tuck my legs and flip. I landed it! The sweat is dripping off my face from all the pain I’m in, my body starts to shake as I fall to the ground. My couch comes running up to me, as I lay there not knowing really what just hit me. All I could keep thinking was that’s I lost, I didn’t win. It’s the end of everything.
That day I lost everything. I shattered my left ankle. I know have three screws and two plates. The worst thing I did that day was shattered my growth plate. The doctor told me that if I go back to gymnastics and I take one wrong land I could never walk again. From that day on I have never been able to do gymnastics again. A couple things here and there but nothing more. My dream was shattered. I felt like I was going through retirement at age fifteen.
By: Brittany Plate
Looking up at the crowd seeing my moms worried face looking down on me, lights shinning on me while the sweat drips down my face, I start to get paranoid. I step up to the blue, soft bouncy floor, as I walk to the middle and hold my position for my routine. I take a look at my three judges sitting at the table waiting for them to give me the ok to start. Thoughts start running through my head, and the judges don’t look nice. One of the judges raises her head to signal that she is ready, while the other two are still filling out the score sheet from the last gymnast. My arms are starting to get tired as I’m still holding them above my head waiting for the music to start. I take a quick look at my team mates and then finally my couch. My eyes start to fill up with water, I’m getting really nervous, my couch whispers “You’ll do great Brittany” as a couple of my team members shout “Come on Brittany, score a 10!” I know that I have to at least score higher than a 7.8 to get our team in first place. Finally after what felt like twenty minutes all three judges nod their heads giving me the “Ok” to start. I count to five, give my coach the ok to start the music. I was off! Nobody was going to stop me, I practiced my floor routine everyday for the past week. I knew it by heart. It was the last competition of the season and I had to end it with a bang.
That was the start of what I thought was going to be the best day of my life. Ever since I was five years old I have been in gymnastics. I guess you could say that I started young. It was my favorite thing to do every week I looked forward to going to class and at home I would make my mom help me practice my cartwheels. In second grade, my gymnastics teacher told my mom that I had something special, I was very limber and was ahead of all the kids my age. She bumped me up to the next level. This couldn’t stop me. Going to gymnastics class was not enough at age eight I felt like I could be doing more so my mom signed me up for a one on one class just me and the couch! Now I was going two days a week. By the time I was ten I was going to gymnastics everyday to practice. Well I wouldn’t call it practice, more like fun. We even ended up making our down stairs living room a gymnastics floor by buying soft mats. By the age of ten I was going to my first meet.
I remember being the youngest and having all the other kids look down on me, even my own team mates. The meet was at home so I was comfortable with the surroundings. I was so excited. My family was there to watch me. My first routine was on vault, this was my favorite. All I remember is running as fast as I could and jumping on the spring board and over the vault I go. I landed it perfect. Looking over at the judges I await my score. I take a glance up at my mom and I see her smiling from ear to ear. Finally I hear 8.2. My mom starts to scream, and my coach is jumping up and down. It takes me a few seconds to realize what I just did. As I start to run to my couch, I can hear her saying “ I told you, that you could do it”. The rest of the day went amazing. On beam I scored a 7.8, bars a 8.0, and floor 8.9. From that day on I knew that gymnastics was what I wanted to do. It was the only way that I could express my self. It was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I had to set a goal and reach it.
The next day at practice I had a meeting with my couch. She told me that she wanted me to join the traveling team and go to different states to compete in gymnastics meets. But because I was only ten years old my mom decide that I couldn’t join and that I had to stay in school. This just meant that I could travel around the state of Minnesota, but could not travel outside. All through middle school my dream was to be in the Olympics‘. I would watch the gymnastics videos and want to be just like them. I knew I was good enough I just needed to get grow up faster and talk my mom into letting me travel outside of the state.
By the time I was fourteen, my mom finally gave in and let me join the traveling team. It was during the summer so I wouldn’t have to miss school. In the 3 months of summer I travel to 15 different states. I received eight first places when combining all my scores from bars, vault, beam, and floor. Three second places and two fourth places. The trophies were amazing, every chance I went home I would put them all over my room. I couldn’t ask for anything better to do with my life.
I just turned fifteen and the summer was coming up again, time to start my traveling. I have waited all year for this. Our team was going to try and make it to 15 more different states again. My body was starting to get drained and taking a turn for the worse. I was at my last competition for the summer doing my last routine. All I needed was a 9.0 or higher to win. My last routine was the floor, which is my favorite because its all tumbling and it’s a good way to end the day. Or so I thought…
I hear the music come on and for a split second the room gets really quite and super cold. I pull myself together and before I know it I’m doing my routine. I pass right through the first floor move getting ready to start my second. As I make my way over to the corner, I take another quick glance at my couch. I know this is the biggest part of my night. I have to accomplish a Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel spring. I see the tape in the corner across from me which is where I need to land, not one foot out. I take a deep breath and start to run, Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel CRACK! I hear the sound of my ankle just make the worse noise I have ever heard. I try and finish my routine. Taking a few steps back getting ready to do my front flip I jump up, tuck my legs and flip. I landed it! The sweat is dripping off my face from all the pain I’m in, my body starts to shake as I fall to the ground. My couch comes running up to me, as I lay there not knowing really what just hit me. All I could keep thinking was that’s I lost, I didn’t win. It’s the end of everything.
That day I lost everything. I shattered my left ankle. I know have three screws and two plates. The worst thing I did that day was shattered my growth plate. The doctor told me that if I go back to gymnastics and I take one wrong land I could never walk again. From that day on I have never been able to do gymnastics again. A couple things here and there but nothing more. My dream was shattered. I felt like I was going through retirement at age fifteen.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Journal #8
My dad went away this weekend for work and i had to take care of my grandpa. They live down in Iowa but we went down to pick them up on wednesday so that way we can help my grandma take care of him. This means that they are going to be living up here with us for a while. My grandpa has a meeting with a doctor from up here on november 2nd that only does work on cancer patients! so hopefully he can help my grandpa make up his mind on what he needs to do to get better. I was kinda scared for them to come up here because i still havent talk to my grandpa about it. I jut hate seeing him like this. But he was really good this weekend and being my self i thought i was going to freak out but i didnt! Friday they toke me shopping and me and my grandma hung out! I do have to admit im pretty spoiled! My dad is the only child and im my dads only child soo... i know im spoiled!! but that is enought for now..
oh.. im a cowboys fan AND THEY kicked butt today!! wow wow
oh.. im a cowboys fan AND THEY kicked butt today!! wow wow
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Journal # 6
(I wrote this on my way home last night in the car)
Im driving home and its about 8 at night. We just went over the river that is practcaully the border if illions and iowa. so we still have about 2 and half hours tell home. That makes it that we wont be home tell around 10. I havent even started typing my contrasting paper yet. So tonight when i get home im going to have to stay up really late and type this paper. The hospital that my grandpa was at was about a hour and half away from his house so i could never get to a computer to start my paper. So today was my grandpas final doctor appointment. The doctor said that cancer is rated on a scale 2 - 10 and 10 is being the worse and my grandpa as a 8. He has a couple different things he can do. The first choice is that he can have surgery but then he cant work for 6 weeks and has to wear depends for 6 weeks and just like a baby has to re learn how to control his kidneys. The second choice is to do radiation everyday for 6 weeks, but the bad part about that is that he has to travel about a hour and half to get to the right doctor. The third thing is that he can take this new medicine call "pepples" that just slows down the cancer. I dont like that one.. i think that we should fix the problem and stop it before it grows. So i told my grandpa that the third choice is just not happening.
Im driving home and its about 8 at night. We just went over the river that is practcaully the border if illions and iowa. so we still have about 2 and half hours tell home. That makes it that we wont be home tell around 10. I havent even started typing my contrasting paper yet. So tonight when i get home im going to have to stay up really late and type this paper. The hospital that my grandpa was at was about a hour and half away from his house so i could never get to a computer to start my paper. So today was my grandpas final doctor appointment. The doctor said that cancer is rated on a scale 2 - 10 and 10 is being the worse and my grandpa as a 8. He has a couple different things he can do. The first choice is that he can have surgery but then he cant work for 6 weeks and has to wear depends for 6 weeks and just like a baby has to re learn how to control his kidneys. The second choice is to do radiation everyday for 6 weeks, but the bad part about that is that he has to travel about a hour and half to get to the right doctor. The third thing is that he can take this new medicine call "pepples" that just slows down the cancer. I dont like that one.. i think that we should fix the problem and stop it before it grows. So i told my grandpa that the third choice is just not happening.
Journal # 5
Again I know im writing this on Thursday but im just coping what I wrote from my peice of paper that i kept my journal on.
Its monday night and im trying to get some sleep, I just emailed my english teacher to tell him that im going to be in class tomorrow for my rough draft talk. That really stinks because i know those are big days and they help out alot. I really havent even started yet working on my paper becuase i cant get my mind off of things. Its so hard to focus when i know that my grandpa is dieing. We still dont know how bad his cancer is and i think thats the worst part of it all because now i have all these things going through my head. I keep thinking of the worse possiable things that could happen. My grandma keeps telling me that he is going to be ok but i hate when people say that because he is not ok thats why he is in the hospital! I guess i just dont understand I know that my grandpa is not the only one that has cancer in this world but its just a really hard time for me. Were not driving back home tell late wednesday night after my grandpas next doctor appointment where we find out if the cancer is in his bones. Right now he is just laying in the hospital bed. The doctors want to keep a good eye on him tell his doctor appointment on Wednesday. Its horriable i hate this place.. its so sad and depressing.
Its monday night and im trying to get some sleep, I just emailed my english teacher to tell him that im going to be in class tomorrow for my rough draft talk. That really stinks because i know those are big days and they help out alot. I really havent even started yet working on my paper becuase i cant get my mind off of things. Its so hard to focus when i know that my grandpa is dieing. We still dont know how bad his cancer is and i think thats the worst part of it all because now i have all these things going through my head. I keep thinking of the worse possiable things that could happen. My grandma keeps telling me that he is going to be ok but i hate when people say that because he is not ok thats why he is in the hospital! I guess i just dont understand I know that my grandpa is not the only one that has cancer in this world but its just a really hard time for me. Were not driving back home tell late wednesday night after my grandpas next doctor appointment where we find out if the cancer is in his bones. Right now he is just laying in the hospital bed. The doctors want to keep a good eye on him tell his doctor appointment on Wednesday. Its horriable i hate this place.. its so sad and depressing.
Journal # 4
As i was down in iowa i didnt have a computer with me most of the time because i was at the hospital with my grandpa so I wrote my journals down on paper. I didnt know they were due today so Im just going to write them in like I wrote them.
I have had the worst week of my life! Last friday my dad and I went down to Iowa where my grandma and granda live because he had a doctor appointment to see if he has cancer. The test back that he did have prostate cancer and that they had to do another test to determine if the cancer was in his bones. So all day on friday we were at the doctors and my grandpa had to have a lot of test done. We werent going to find out the answer tell wendesday and also on wendesday they were going to tell us the options of what my grandpa could do to help get rid of the cancer. So here we wait. Im really scared because im super close with my grandpa and i still have all of my grandparents left. So this is really hard for me to take this all in. Im not really sure if im suppose to cry, or what to do.
I have had the worst week of my life! Last friday my dad and I went down to Iowa where my grandma and granda live because he had a doctor appointment to see if he has cancer. The test back that he did have prostate cancer and that they had to do another test to determine if the cancer was in his bones. So all day on friday we were at the doctors and my grandpa had to have a lot of test done. We werent going to find out the answer tell wendesday and also on wendesday they were going to tell us the options of what my grandpa could do to help get rid of the cancer. So here we wait. Im really scared because im super close with my grandpa and i still have all of my grandparents left. So this is really hard for me to take this all in. Im not really sure if im suppose to cry, or what to do.
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