Standing
in the batter’s box as the pitcher wound up, all my senses kicked into
overdrive. My hands clenched the grippy rubber tape on my trusty Easton Slugger
bat. Suddenly, all noise, distractions and extra stimuli melted away as I
became laser focused on the ball. As the ball whizzed through the air, I felt
calm and confident; I knew that I could get to home base. I knew I was in
control.
The
ball sliced through the air, and my feet pounded the dirt base path. Everything
felt like it was moving at super speed. As I rounded first base, I thought, Just
run. Just run. Just run. Just run. Just run. The ball continued on
its trajectory towards left field. My legs zoomed across second base.
As
I raced from second to third, my coach shouted, ¨STOP! Don´t run home!” I
immediately told myself stop while holding back the urge to run home. I
knew my coach wanted me to stop because running would be too much of a risk.
The ball was already flying over second. Still, I thought I could make it home.
My brain was having a struggle as I imagined the umpire going back and forth
with his call: Safe! Out! Safe! Out! What would it be? I had to use all
my will and might to restrain myself from running.
The
crowd went wild. I heard them screaming, ¨Go home! Go home!” My brain
said, system malfunction. Error. Error. Error. I didn't know what to do
now. My coach wanted one thing, the crowd wanted another. I wanted to do both
but knew I couldn´t! I trusted my coach;
I trusted myself. I had all the control in the situation, but could I control
myself?
In
the end, I scored a point for my team by stealing home on the following batter.
I learned that I could practice self-control by stopping and thinking. I began
to learn to trust in the leadership of my coach and in my own abilities.
Putting myself in situations where I have to practice better self-control is
challenging, but this experience taught me that I can improve and get better.
-Miles M.
The central idea is self-control. A quote I liked was, “ My brain said, system malfunction. Error. Error. Error.” This happens to me alot when multiple people are yelling at me in any sport. I can apply self-control to my life in my sport lacrosse. For example, when I bring the ball up I want to go score, but you need to be able to control yourself and look for an open player. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteThe lesson I have learned from this story is to have self-control. You show people how you can make the right decisions with self-control. The line, “I had all the control in the situation, but could I control myself,” supports this lesson. Self-control can help you make the right choices in life.
ReplyDeleteAwesome job! I liked the way you use descriptive language.‘ My hands clenched the grippy rubber tape on my trusty Easton Slugger bat’ and ‘As the ball whizzed through the air’ It made me feel like I was right in the crowd. I also liked the way you put your thoughts instead of just the way people viewed them. It added extra realism to your writing.
ReplyDeleteMiles, In your personal narrative I like how you taught a lesson that you had to fear. Even though it was short, there was a lot of detail. You said that your brain malfunctioned, and I think that was a cool part to the story even though it was a hard time for you. I thought that was a great piece to this.
ReplyDelete