Write 300+ words about a time when you "grew" or "shrunk" instantly, figuratively speaking, of course. This exercise is due Saturday, October 4, at 10:00 p.m. and is worth 20 points. Remember to type your class period number in front of your 300+ words.
This is a picture of Will Sampson as Chief Bromden.
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Period 1
I remeber a time when I shrunk immensely, I felt as if I were 4'4" instead of 6'4". I just wished I was invisible and silent and could sneak away swiftly. The reason I was so shrunked feeling is because i was giving a speech in middle school in Mrs. Mohr's class and i stumbled over my words and forgot all about my note cards and i was babbling on about nothing trying to fill in the time requirement. I think the speech was on ancient Mayan or Incan culture i can't remember but I did horrible on it (hahah). Now I don't entirely know if I was as scared as chief Broom is in the book but I was pretty rattled. As soon as I started rambling on like an idiot all the kids started to laugh. Soon after the laughter Mrs. Mohr told the class to quiet down and they grew silent. After that I had given up all hope and wanted to mope back to my pitiful little desk in the corner and shut my eyes to the world. Because I thought the world has shut its eyes to me. After class Mrs. Mohr came up to me and said "dont get so nervous Chase its not that big of a deal". So the next speech was on philosophers and important people, mine where aristotle and Alexander. So I made sure I had my note cards all ready and when it was my turn I took a breath and gave my speech it was so good that she filmed it. I was very happy and I feel that I grew two more feet that day because of the oral triumph. I felt as if I had overcome a fear or phobia of speaking infront of my peers and classmates but that day i was victorious over all of them. I achieved a 100% on the speech. It really made my day for that to happen it was almost like I was looking down on everyone because i had done so great. All good things come to an end unfortunately the next day was an ordinary middle school day but no one could ever take that one good speech away from me.
One time i vividly remember shrinking into a corner is in my freshman year of high school. I was walking up the stairs at the end of the day fairly early into the school year. I, being the massive klutz that I am, completely biffed it going up the stairs. Just as I fell, about three or four senior boys walked past me practically stepping all over me. I remember one of the boys muttering ‘stupid freshman’. I felt so low, and bad about myself. I never wanted to see those boys again. I was completely humiliated. It was humiliating enough falling up the stairs with tons of people around but the fact that they recognized that fact that I was a freshman made the whole matter 10 times worse. I went to my class feeling horrible about myself. After the day had ended, I went to my brothers’ best friend, Alec Vanhove, and told him what had happened. He told me that I wasn’t a stupid freshman and that he himself had tripped going up the stairs. This made me feel a litter better. A few days later, he caught me during lunch and told me to follow him. We went to a table filled with senior boys. At this table all of the guys that had watched me fall were sitting. Alec made the guys apologize to me. They said they were sorry. After having them apologize I felt 10,000 times better! I couldn’t tell you who those boys were to this day but they will always make me think of my self shrinking below them. This event makes me understand how chief feels as he is hiding in the closet. He hid in the closet when I felt like that was the only thing that I could do to make my life less miserable.
All through elementary school this girl Erica was always mean to me. She always wanted what I had. She would steal my friends and spread bad rumors about me all the time. I always tried to be the bigger person about it and brush it off. I was never mean to her, I even hung out with her a few times. When we got to middle school, I thought since we would be at a bigger school, I could make different friends from other elementary schools and never see or talk to her again. After I had made a few good friends, she couldn't let me have them! About halfway into the school year some of my friends stopped talking to me, so I asked them why. They told me it was because Erica had informed them that I was a lesbian. Being an innocent little 6th grader that doesn't know anything, I went home to my mom to ask what it meant. The next day at school, NONE of my friends were talking to me. I felt smaller than an ant. I didn't know what to do. I cried in the bathroom for the rest of that day (and that was the first day I had tried to wear makeup to school so my face was covered with black smears), then the principal called Erica and I into her office. Erica apologized to me and we didn't speak for the rest of the school year. Erica ended up getting ISS and I got all my friends back. Turns out I'm completely straight.
Pd.1
I remember a time when I shrunk immensely, it was my first day of high school in a new school. I had moved from Spirit Lake, Iowa and from a school with about five-hundred students. It was a substantial change from what I was used to, to go from a school of that size to a school with over eight-hundred students. When I walked into the school I felt as if I was minuscule and unimportant. I didn’t know anyone and I was unknown to all. It’s hard to go into a new place and feel like you belong, and I felt as if I didn’t fit in and invisible to everyone. Everyone was oblivious to the fact that I even existed. I was asked in every class where I was from and what brought me to Brandon, this made me shrink even lower into my seat. Moving had taken me out of my comfort level and made me experience feelings I hadn’t had at that period in my life. When people would ask me questions about my life I felt awkward and shy, this was something utterly new to me in every sense of the word. I’ve had shrinking experiences in my life previous to this but this was by far the most I’ve shrunk in a long time. I know how Chief Bromden feels when he tries to hide and not stand out from everyone else. I tried to keep as low a profile as I could, but being a new kid on the block it’s hard not to stick out like a sore thumb. I am glad I moved, I made a plethora of new friends and I’ve had many memories that have impacted my life in a large way. Even though I was uncomfortable and felt awkward for a week or two, it was an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world.
I can recall a time when I felt no bigger than snowflakes around me. I was at Great Bear a few yars ago and I was entered in a snowboard competition. It was a competition where the person who did the best trick off the jump won the contest. Well I was with friends and we were practicing what we were going to do off the jump, but it was really tense because we all wanted to win, and nobody wanted to lose to their friend. As soon as the competition began we didn't even talk to eachother. Everyone got two runs each. My first run was an indy grab three-sixty, and my next one I stepped it up to a five-forty and stomped it. As I was watching other people go most of them crashed. So I just went inside to wait for awards. A few of my friends who didn't enter the competition came in and were telling me that I had it in the bag and no one was even close. So my head started to grow little by little as I went around telling my friends "nice try" and "better luck next time" because I thought I got first place. When awards started they announced third place and it wasn't my name which I figured it wouldn't be. Next they announced second place and said it was a close one, and then announced my name. I was so ashamed, I didn't even want to go up and accept the trophy. I felt like such a jerk and I'm sure the other people thought I deserved it, which I am sure I did. I learned my lesson and the next time I didn't say or assume anything, and ended up getting first place which was a good feeling.
Period 3
I can remember a time when i shrunk instantly. My parents went to Puerto Viarta for a week so my grandma was going to watch us three girls. We didnt think we would miss our parents at all because we had just got a new kitten named Shasta. We thought it was going to be so cool because our oldest cousin tracy was going to come and stay with us for a night and we wanted her to see the new kitten. My sister Kaycee(6th grade) and I (4th grade) rode the school bus home everyday after school. One day we came running up to the house and we had seen Shasta but she wouldnt look at us when we called her. We could only see her hind legs and her back, the head was on the other side of the garage door. We SCREAMED! into the house. Grandma asked what the problem was and we showed her. She had shut the garage door that morning when we left for school and Shasta didnt make it in. The garage door had smashed Shasta right at her neck. Grandma felt so bad and didnt know what to do, so she said that she would put the cat in the trunk of her car and leave it open just to see if the cat came back to life. Us three girls cried and cried, that cat had meant so much to us in that short time we had had it. Every couple hours we would make grandma go check on the cat and everytime she would come back in and say, "she is still laying there" and us girls would just start bawling again. Finally we had the chance to call mom and dad to tell them what happened. That phone bill with that phone call on it was the biggest phone bill my parents have ever had. Each of us had to tell the story over and over to them through the phone. Today grandma is forgetting alot of things, but when you ask her about our cat Shasta she will tell the whole story, and all of us will laugh so hard. It was very hard at the time to see our kitten dead but now it is no big deal.
There have been numerous times in my life when I have felt like I was immensly shrunken, there are also times in my life where I have felt immensly grown. The most significant time that sticks out in my mind happens to be a time I grew. My sophomore year our varsity basketball team made it to the state tournament in Rapid City. We went in ranked at #8 so we consequently had to play the #1 seed, who at the time was Sioux Falls Roosevelt. Roosevelt was two time defending champions and favored to win it all again that year. They had beaten us earlier in the season by around 40ish points. We as a team, were greatly intimidated by these facts but were determined and knew we had a shot at winning the game. We went into the game completely focused, knowing what had to be done and ready to accomplish it. Within about five minutes of the game we were up TWENTY! We were all extremely pumped but knew they wouldn't quit fighting. We went into halftime up by twenty. Mr. Stadem was not yet satisfied, he told us we still had another half to finish out. We came out the second half just as strong as the first. The closest they ever got was within eleven. We luckily had a great crowd there that game to see our triumphant victory. They all stormed the court and the buzzer and were hugging and congradulating all of us. It was the most amazing feeling ever! There were news reporters everywhere on our way back to the locker room, taking pictures and getting interviews. I felt like a celebrity. That night our game was on all the sports channels and the front page of the paper the following day. It was the first time IN HISTORY that the #8 seed beat the #1 seed. It was such an amazing feeling to be noticed like that for our accomplishments.
3
I can remember many times where I shrunk inside and wanted to hide in a corner. This one time really sticks out in my head when I was in a state tennis match, and I was playing doubles with Ryan Truax. We were in the third round of the tournament and we were playing the number 4 ranked rapid city central boys and Ryan and I were ranked number 5. We won the first set in some very close games 6-4 and lost the second set 3-6. It was the third set for the match and the game score was 3-5 and the they were winning the third game 40-30. They served it to Ryan and he hit a drop shot back to them and they couldn't get to it so it was now tied 40-40 and if we lost this point we would lose the match. I chose to return the serve because I had been getting most of them in lately. I felt pretty nervous prior to him serving and the kid serving to me looked really confident. He served it to me and I tried to hit it down the line past the person at the net, but I ended up hitting it to far to the left and it went out so we lost the match. I wanted to be invisible at that point and go hide in a corner. I felt as though I shrunk three feet because I let my teammate and my team down. That was probably the most ashamed moment of my life.
I remember a time when I was thirteen and I went from being my mom's number one too her number two. My mom and I have always been close. We used to go out to eat, go on shopping sprees, and have spa days all the time. Then one day I was in my room watching TV and she came in and told me she had some big news. My mind was racing I had no idea what the news could have been. Did something happen to my dad or another family member? Where her and my future step-dad having issues and breaking up? In the short seconds it took for her to walk from my door to my bed a million possibilities of what her "big" news was went racing through my head. I tried to put on a fake smile as she smiled at me. She looked really excited. We sat there for a minute or two and finally I yelled, "Just tell me!" That is when she told me she was pregnant. I instantly began to cry I did not know what to think I was mad yet thought of a little sibling sounded ok. After I thought about it for a while I realized I was so mad! I had always wanted an older brother or sister but not a younger one. All I had heard about younger brothers and sisters was they were annoying and never went away. After my mom knew I was not very excited she began to cry because she thought I would be happy about it. In those short moments I went from being my mom's baby girl too being mom's big girl and I did not want that. I thought she would completely forget about me if there were another sibling in the picture. As time went on I began to like the idea of a sibling, a baby sister, and eventually loved it. But the day my mom told me she was pregnant I went from being the best thing in my mom’s life to the second best.
pd. 3
Ok, so i am in a winter competing drum line, and one year I came in a bit to hot for my own good. So I began to play with everybody in the line, and as the night progressed if came to the conclusion that I was just about the worse drummer there. Horribly unfourtunate for me, because I would have done just about anything to get on the line that year. So it was getting towards the end of the night and I could see that the insturctors were writing down notes and things of the sort, on who would make the best drum line for that year. Well it was just about time to leave and I thought if i could just get a few words in with the main instructor it might help my case a bit. Well they had basically already made up their minds about the line, and I wasn't on it...in fact I was very far from it.
So that put me in a reality check on where I am compared to the rest of the drumming community. So for the next year I practiced my butt off just in hope that it would be possible for me to even have the slightest chance on getting on the line. (if i didn't mention, i was basically going up against the lincoln drum line which is THE best drum line in the the mid west region...and basically anywhere they go. but anyways) So the next years try outs come around again and theres me off on the end of the tenor line getting ready to play. I came in with nobody, not even myself, thinking I would be in for more then 10 minutes, tops. But as the night went on I slowly made my way towards the center! Which is a very big deal for little 'ol brandon. And sure enough I actually made the line that year! Now we can only hope that I have the same luck this year!
3
It's hard to think of a specific memory of growing and shrinking. i feel when i'm lowest of the lows, that i'm this huge person that has foot wide legs and a midsection that sticks out 3 feet! maybe it's because i'm a girl and that i worry about being fat and how i look. you'll have to ask another girl to see if they feel the same. But anyways i think one of the most recent events was New Years. I thought it would be cool to stay out wiht my friends and just tell my rents ill see them in the morning. Many people do it i have heard so i figured why can't i? well i felt on top of the world because i defeated the system. Well that was blurred because of the alcohol! when i woke up i knew iw ould have to go home and face my parents. So i went home and felt about as small as a skin particle falling off my arm. The next 3 or 4 months i felt real small because my parents had to get the cops involved of course. so i did a 60 day program where i had to actually obey my parents. now that made me feel pretty low. when it was finally said and done though i learned to tell them whats up or wait until i'm 18 and out of hte house in november. this new years will be more fun and enjoyable i'm thinking. no drinking though becuase i choose not to drink. (mostly because it tastes horrible!)
3.
I think figuratively growing and shrinking happens daily in my life. Sometimes it seems significant to remember and other times it just affects me for that second. Times like when I lost a loved one, or I didn't make the team I wanted, or I did something stupid stands out as those times that I shrunk. But, times like when I got my new car after having the squeakiest car in town, winning important games, and earning praise made me grow taller. But, one event that happens daily that can make me shrink or grow within seconds occurs every morning at work. I work at a daycare, and a lot of times I work with infants. As an adult holding a baby, you ,in a way, grow automatically, because even though I am only eighteen I feel like I am so much more capable than this young life I am holding. Not only am I so much more intelligent and mature, I can also do the simple things like walk, communicate, and think maturely. Knowing that these babies cannot do much more than breathe to stay alive, on their own, makes me automatically grow, as I hold them. But, then they get hungry or tired or uncomfortable. They begin to cry. They don't EVER tell you what's wrong. It really would be helpful if they did, but they never do. Therefore, I must figure it out. And, it's like a game. Trying the bottle, the pacifier, the blanket, whatever will possibly make this baby stop crying. When the baby doesn't stop crying and just whales louder and louder is about the time that I begin to shrink. A couple seconds ago I had such control and was the only thing keeping this baby content, but now, I have no idea. I try what I think will help it, and hope that its what it wants. Sometimes the babies cry for what seems to be forever! At these times I am tiny. But, once you find what they are looking for, and make them happy again, you seem to grow pretty quickly back to your controlled self. It is a situation filled with relief and exhaustion at the same time! Also, I told a co-worker of mine I was going to be in the Big Sister program, and she responded by saying that I would make a great big sister and she would love for her kids to hang out with someone like me anyday. This was a situation that made me grow automatically, because I felt like I was doing my job well and someone had noticed.
period 3
Basic Combat Training was a constant roller coaster of shrinking and growing for me. Leaving was an experience in itself, and it was scary, i shrunk in fear a little bit, but i grew because i knew i was doing it and i knew why i was doing it. from the drill sergeant making me bay boss, putting me in charge of sixty females, to the "ghetto" incident where i cried for like an hour i felt so bad, to passing my pt test, and shooting, and drill sergeants and privates that fight all the time, it's trying. I don't think it's necessarily the hardest thing ever if you're in the right mind set but it was still very difficult. And i did it mainly because my mom called me a pussy girly girl, i had something to prove. so when family day came, my parents don't hug they're very non touch not talk alot, but they were both prior service. My dad was talking to me, and my mom got out of the car before i had to leave to go into the barracks for the final night in basic training and eventually i got out of the car, it was raining and my mom gave me a huge hug and told me how proud she was of me. i did what she thought i never would do, and stuck with it, and how now i was my dad's pride and joy now. It was a surreal moment for me, the letters and my parents go to know me more via letters than when i'm around in person. my mom still has all my messages left on the answering machine. It's a huge growing thing to get through all of that emotion. I shrunk when i got home though and found out i gained 20 pounds this summer...that sucked
One summer day, my Dad made the misinformed decision of allowing his thirteen year old son to drive the good old farm truck. My Father and I had been clearing trees from the grove all day and had loaded the remaining branches and firewood into the bed of the pick-up. The truck was so full of scrap wood that the tailgate was hanging agape. After such a long stressful day, we were both exhausted, but there was still work to be done. The next order of business was unloading the firewood from the blue Chevrolet and into the burn pile. I figured, just like any other work day, my Father would do the driving, but not this time. I felt elated as my dad said he trusted me enough to drive his truck over to the pit. I knew that I could not run the car in drive to the burn pile because the lane was thin and there was no room to turn around. I began to back the car up, but, because of my lack of height or lack of driving skill, I did not accurately reverse the car. Instead of centering the truck on the lane, I backed into a large oak tree. My first reaction was to fix the truck and cover up my sophomoric mistake. Despite my efforts, the tailgate was bent beyond repair. I felt myself shrink five sizes as I located my Father and explained to him what had happened. Although I expected an over reaction, my Dad accepted the accident as his mistake and was pleased that I had not been injured. Now my Dad trusts me enough to have a vehicle of my own, but to this day I am always a little more careful when I back up, regardless of the situation.
5
I felt like I was an inch tall on September 29th of 2006. I didn't shrink because of something I directly did, but because there was nothing I could do to make everything better and make the pain go away. On September 29th, 2006 my brother Shawn was involved in a two car accident outside of Larchwood Iowa. My brother was driving himself and two friends to a party that night when he ran a stop sign. His car was struck on the passenger side by an on coming mini van. The car rolled three times and landed upside down in a cornfield nearby. My brother opened his eyes to see blood, grass, and glass all around him. He was air-lifted to the hospital, while his backseat passenger was air-lifted to a Minneapolis hospital. The first name my brother could say was mine. The doctors called me that night and told me that my brother had been in a serious accident and I needed to contact my parents. It was surreal to me. I never thought something this tragic could happen to my family. When I got to the emergency room I saw my brother lying in a hospital bed, already out of one surgery. I squeezed his hand and told him I loved him, then went to the waiting room and waited for my parents to arrive. While I was waiting, a friend of my brothers came in. He gave me a hug and all he said was "They can't find Sarge's body." Trevor "Sarge" Russ was the front seat passenger in my brother's car that night. His body was flown from the vehicle and later found lying in the corn field. He was pronounced dead. Trevor and my brother had been friends even before I was born. To this day my brother blames himself for Trevor’s death. I shrunk the day I had to bring my brother to an Iowa jail where he would spend thirty days for vehicular homicide. It makes me shrink when I hear about him, not because it was my fault, but because no matter how hard I wish Trevor won’t come back and nothing will be the same. I shrink every holiday when I look at my family and count all of my family members, knowing someone in the Russ family is doing the same, but counts one less. I shrink when I go through old photo albums with my brother and see pictures of them together. I shrink when I accidentally bring up an old memory that involves Trevor. Most importantly I shrink every year on September 29th around 9:00pm. When the clock chimes I get goose bumps and I remember what happened years ago, but feels like yesterday.
3
I've had many times in my life where i've felt small, but when I was in the hospital for 16 days there is nothing that even comes close in comparison to how small I felt those 16 days. It all started when me and 5 kids i know from dell rapids decided to go rock jumping off of about a 15 ft drop off, i was a little wary about jumping so i went last, after seeing everyone else do it, it looked safe enough to me, but i didnt jump far enough out and both of my heels landed on rocks that were right below the surface of the water, i immediately was in shock because the pain was so intense, i knew i wouldnt be able to drive home so i called my mom,when she got there she thought it looked pretty bad so i went to the clinic and had to get 6 stitches, but 3 days later my foot was severly infected and i was admitted into the hospital to get surgery to cut out the infection that had spread to my bone. After the first surgery i had another to close the wound, but that next morning the nurses were freaking out because my blood had a spike of toxins over the night and they had no idea why, so over the next few days they did a series of painful tests to figure out what was wrong with me, they finally figured out that a medicine that they had been giving me for my foot had sent my into acute kidney failure, over the next few days it got worse and worse, i lost 30lbs and didnt eat for 4 days because my body couldnt filter out the toxins, during that time i couldnt leave walk, go to the bathroom by myself or even get out of bed somedays, i felt as small as a pea because i no longer had control of anything i did, the doctors had the say in everything and you could tell that they really didnt really care about you because they had so many other patients, this really sucked because those were the people i was looking forward to hearing good news and encouragement from but instead i got fake sympathy and never got good news... but after a 2 month long rollercoaster ride things are finally back to normal and i never want to go back to a hospital ever again.
I am very close with my parents and I feel that anytime I don’t live up to their expectations or I do something that lets them down I get small and or shrunken. Now, I can’t do everything that my parents want me to do and I’ve definitely do and have done things that has brought their trust down but for the most part I’m a good kid and don’t lie to either of them all too often. There was one night though my sophomore year that I decided to lie and go out and do some things I probably shouldn’t of been doing. Me and some friends decided to go to a party and I knew my mom would not approve of me going so I said we were just going to stay at my friends house and watch movies, I already felt bad right then and I think my mom knew I was not telling the truth because I am not good at lying at all. Well me and the two others went out to the party and had some fun but we decided to leave and go get three more people to come and join us. The three were coming and we were going to go out and have them follow us back to the house but before we got to them they had gotten into and accident, though it wasn’t that serious and no one was hurt I started freaking and that’s when the shrinking really began, I had no clue what we were going to do. We decided that one of the girls had to get home soon because she had snuck out, so five of us got in my car to drive her back home. All of us were already freaking out about what we were going to do about the other car and kid in the ditch, and when the cop car pulled up behind us with his lights on it did not help our situation one bit. We were busted, and the whole way to the cop station I could feel my self becoming as small as a pebble and I was so scared of what I was going to tell my mom. The look on my mom’s face at 3 am coming into the cop station to get her daughter is one I will never forget and hope to never see again. My stomach tied up into the biggest and tightest knot ever, and I felt like I truly let her down and like I was nothing. I never want to feel like that again and I have definitely opened up to my mom and tell her what I’m up to. She knows that things happen in high school and trouble will happen but we both have found its better if I tell her the truth and what’s happening.
When I think about growing and shrinking figuratively speaking I realize how often it happens to me. Whether it is a big thing of a little thing. I often feel very small if I am left out of something or if I'm not as good at something as I would like to be. When I feel big it is either because I have won my soccer game or I have got an A on a test. Everyday I either feel big or small and each day is usually different. But one specific time was when i felt completely shrunken. It was the 2003 and I had just began 7th grade. My mom had broke the news to me that we were going to move to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This would be my second time moving states because when I was 7 years old I had moved from LeMars, IA to Scottsdale, AZ. This was shocking to me though, why would we move from Arizona to SOUTH DAKOTA?!? A month later, once we got settled into my house, I was going to my first day of school in Brandon. I walked in not knowing one single person and feeling completely lost and alone. I really did not know what to sey so I did not talk much. I felt like I was never going to fit in here. I just remember going home that day, and telling my mom that I just wanted to go back to my old friends and to the place where I felt comfortable. While I was walking from class to class I felt like the smallest person at the school even though everyone would look at me. I mean it was attention but not the attention that I really wanted. I felt out of place and I didn't know how to talk to anyone. I had a few people come up to me and talk to me which helped a lot but I still felt so tiny in that new school. It was a much smaller school than where I had came from but it felt a hundred times bigger than my school in Arizona. Today I realize that it made me stronger and I know I can deal with having to meet new people and how to deal with being in a new town. I believe change is good but sometimes it takes a lot to get used to and you have to feel small at first then you can become larger and larger.
period 5
I specifically remember a day in 7th grade where I shrunk immensely. I was in track in 7th grade. I wasn't very good, but I enjoyed running anyway and all of my friends were in track also. So I ran track for fun and running took away my stress from being a middle schooler (there is not much stress in middle school, but at the time it felt like a dump truck had taken all of the stress in the world and dumped it on MY shoulders). Anyway, one day we were at the high school track and we were all separated into our little sections of Hurdlers, Long distance, pole vaulting, and short distance people. I was just doing what the coach told me by running a mile around the track. But during the fourth lap of my run, I noticed that all of the "popular" boys were gathering on the track and cheering for everyone who ran through them. I thought nothing of it. But when it came my time to run through them, they all stopped cheering and stayed at a dead silence. I was humiliated. I felt like crying. I heard one of the boys say "haha we all stop cheering." All of them snickered and started laughing. I managed to finish the race with all of the boys still laughing about their little "joke." I felt so small that day and I always wonder if those boys expected me to remember that day for the rest of my life. Still to this day, I sometimes feel like walking up to that group of boys and letting them know that I still remember that as one of the most mortifying days of my life. I would like to know if they even care now that it has been 5 years since the incident. I will NEVER forget that moment, and the boys who were a part of it should be ashamed that they left such a horrible memory in my head.
I grew up in the hearing world. There are two worlds; hearing and deaf world. The hearing world is the hearing society. The deaf world is the deaf society. All of my live I have had a hard time communicating with hearing people. I have had many shrinking stories, not only because of communication problems, but also many other things. One shrinking moment was when I was on the high school varsity softball team. We went to a tournament in Jackson, Minnesota. During our break, we went to Subway for lunch. I was the fifth person who got my food. I sat at a table and hoped someone would join me. When everyone got their food and I was done, no one sat with me. I felt so small and sad. I tried making myself be brave so I walked to a table where four girls sat. I grabbed a chair and sat there. I tried saying hi. The four girls seemed happy but five or so minutes later the girls seemed to forget I was there. They talked too fast. I don't know what they said. I texted on my cellphone "You know I can't read you guys' lips... too fast". Then I showed it to one girl and hoped they would talk with me. They didn't. Well it was my first time telling people something like that. Then they turned and looked at me. Talking very fast they did talk to me. After making fun of me, they laughed! I felt like shrinking because that is not fair! It is not fair for me because I can't hear but I can talk. I just can't hear!
The most recent growing or shrinking moment I had was the Pigskin Classic football game this year agianst O'gorman. The senior class had never beaten the O'gorman Knights but knew coming into the game that we had a good chance of beating them. The game was not like any other football game that I had ever played in before this game had a hundred times more emotion involved and was extremely physical. The crowd was bigger and louder than I had ever seen or heard it. The crowd and the fans were a major part of the game because when we were the most tired they cheered loud and kept us going. After four long, excruciating, exhausting quarters of football we came out on top. When the score board said that there was no time left my completely dead body had a surge of energy that I will never forget. I surge of excitement and relief came over me, it felt like the expression goes "a monkey was lifted off of my back" because we had finally done it, we finally beat them. We had stunned the Knights and I'm sure most of our fans by pulling off the upset. After we had finished shaking their hands our student section stormed onto the field to celebrate with us, we felt like we were on top of the world. When I got home that night my body ached in every place and I was up most of the night sick because I was dehydrated. I had never been so sore and so tired immediately following a game but it was all worth it to finally beat O'gorman. The feeling of beating them made us all feel huge, ten times bigger than how small they had made us feel all the other times that they had beaten us combined.
Period 3
There have been so many experiences I have had where I have grown or shrunk instantly. So many, in fact, that I am having a hard time choosing. But, I believe I will tell you about a time that I grew instantly. I have always loved marching band. And so my sophomore year in May I tried out to become a commander. I remember going to the workshops to learn what to do in our audition, I felt so small next to the upperclassmen who were also trying out. I worked my butt off to get my pattern right and all of my vocal commands (which is so pointless to me now). On the day of tryouts we drew numbers to see who went first, second, and so on and so on. I was the last number, I believe it was number 8. I waited and waited to go in and tryout. I went in and messed up on my vocal commands, and probably everything else. I thought I did so horrible, in fact I remember walking out and telling myself I never had a chance to make it. It was my first year trying out and there were only two open spots as commanders. There were also two other girls who I thought had a way better chance of making it than me. I remember being so upset about that tryout and trying to convince myself that I didn't really even want to make it, even though that was such a huge lie to myself at the time. The next day we had early morning parade practice and the list was up. I remember walking in and people were staring at me, some smiling, some not. I walked up to the window of Mr. Kessler's office and there it was, my name, along with three others. I had never been so happy, I had worked hard and my hard work had payed off.
Pd. 5
I remember when I grew a bit in high school. It was sophomore year and I was in Mr. Donelan's construction class during 3rd period I think. We were learning and practicing constructing building parts and drafting them. We also worked on what tools to use and some tips with construction. During the more of the middle to later part of the semester we worked on building two sheds. One of the sheds had a closet and the other shed had a porch. We learned about the angle of the roofs and putting the walls together. First though, we built the base which used treated lumber to withstand rotting on the ground. After that we covered it with plywood and got it ready to be moved outside of the actual shop. Once we got the bases outside we worked on building each side and the layout of the overall shed. It only took about two to three days per wall after also covering them with plywood. After we had all the walls constructed we started to assemble them to the base. Soon that was accomplished as well. Later we built our rafters and laid them on top of the shed and learned a method that was easy to put them up there. At this time we started eating sunflower seeds which just made it more worth the time. Following the rafter we put plywood over them as well. Now that the shed was assembled and covered in plywood, we started to put siding on the sides and shingles on the roof. I helped with both because it was all simple. We finished all of this on the last week before school ended. The only thing I forgot which was my hammer and I had no idea where it went but the whole time building the shed was worth it. It felt like a big accomplishment when we finished.
period 7
I can recall many times, growing and shrinking (figuratively). But the most of my rising and falling was last year; my first year in color guard. We had practiced all summer and into the beginning of the school year, and our first football game was coming up. I was really excited but even more nervous. All of my guard girls assured me that I would be fine and to just have fun with it. Finally the big day came, the day we had been waiting for and practicing for, all day everyday of our summer. We warmed up and got ready to walk on the field. I was doing alright until I saw the crowd. The stands were packed, home and visiting. I instantly went into a panic and started shaking. I could bet the whole town was there. But it was too late to turn around, so we marched on the field. I was doing pretty well until we got to the first toss. The toss I had thrown a million plus times before and nailed the catch. I dropped it that night. My heart sank and from then on I was out of step, off count; it was horrible. After we finished, I faked a smile and waved to the fans. Then we walked out the gates and listened to the band director talk about our next performance. All I could think was, “wow that was horrible, I never want to do that again.” I felt so small and so embarrassed; I went home and cried. But, I had worked so hard and so long on this to give up after the first show. So the next week when we had our first competition I told myself it would be better, and it was. I nailed that toss, and all that followed and felt so much better; I grew back what I had lost, and then some. That time when I smiled and waved to the fans, it was a real smile.
period 5
For me my life has been a roller coaster ride all my life, I was in the early stages of my life a happy go lucky kid. Toward the middle where I guess puberty hit I was down right depressed. Now for last few years I’ve been happier than I was back years ago, so let me tell you of how I was once shrunk to the size of mouse and grew up to be the size of building. People see me and they think I’m a happy person, and that’s true but it wasn’t always like that. Back in elementary school I was just a regular kid who loved to have fun and hangout with friends, a typical mind of a young kid. I had good friends, good teachers, and just in general having fun at school. However something happened, you see a few good friends of mine started moving very far away and at the time (keep in mind I’m only eleven or so) I was sad because you think to yourself who am I going to hangout with now.
My self-esteem was at an all time low entering middle school and I got to tell you I was depressed for a good majority of time I was there. Besides the fact my friends were gone, I had some issues to deal with; for instance I was somewhat overweight back in middle school. I basically looked like I had a double chin and even man boobs that was just terrible. No one ever made fun of me but thing was I wasn’t acknowledged at all for a good amount of time I was there and that just made me feel worse about myself. Don’t get me wrong I had some moments where I felt good about myself, I met a girl back in middle school and she and I liked each other (not in the sense of going out but still a major improvement from before, before I didn’t talk to any girls since I was only eleven at the time). So just when I was back on track toward feeling good about myself, poof she moves away and now I was back to where I started. Three years passed and now I’m about to start high school at Brandon Valley, I thought to myself before I started I need to change right away. I thought that maybe if I put some effort into hi, they might respond back its crazy enough to work. I changed everything about myself entering myself the way looked; I opened my eyes when I talked to people, I started working out to loose some weight (I lost all of it), you name it I did it. So now when I was freshman I did all that and I got to tell you it was the best decision I ever made. Four years later I’m a senior and now I have all kinds of friends, not just people in my grade but in every grade. So I try not to look back on the past and move on toward the future, I’m friends with nearly everyone in my grade and have friends in every other grade and it’s going to suck when I graduate because I’m going to miss them a lot but you have to move forward and that’s what I tend to do. I’m one of the few people to be the size of a fat mouse for a few years and than make a comeback and be the size of the incredible hulk (if your asking if that’s a good thing, HECK YA that’s supposed to be meant in a good way)!
5
Life is like a roller coaster, it has its ups and downs. There have been times in my life when I have had my own ups and downs. During the marching band season I feel great after a good show. After a bad show I feel terrible. Just last weekend, the marching band went to Luverne tri-state and Big Sioux Review. I felt an adrenalin rush as we were marching onto the field at Luverne; I was getting focused to make this one of my best run downs of the season. After the show I felt great. We got first and overall sweepstakes. I think we all felt pretty great. That night at Big Sioux Review we had to wait in a block formation for 50 minutes and some of us were getting tired. Finally Kessler called us to attention and we marched onto the field. We all felt incredible after that performance. It was by far the best performance we have put on this season.
There are also times when I feel very small. Freshman year I hardly had any friends, no one would talk to me. I walked around not talking at all that year, and I never said any thing in my classes.
There have been times at work I have felt small. Thursday night I had to work at the Pizza Ranch, to close, and I started feeling like my throat was closing up. My glands on the side of my neck had started to swell till my neck was about twice the size it normally is. But I stuck it out and closed. But I felt like I couldn’t do anything that night.
On June 3, 2008 I had to get up at 4 o’ clock in the morning. I had to get on a plane to go to Europe. I felt really tired and kind of angry that my mom had gotten me up so early. So we drove to the high school and we said our goodbyes. I am surprised my mom didn’t cry. Casey, Kyera, and I all packed into Casey’s mom’s car and we were on our way to Minneapolis. We got there about an hour and a half after, and we waited for our plane to arrive. While we were, Casey and I had to go to the bathroom and Terpstra told us we had to hurry. So I told Casey to potty fast, and Casey gives me a dirty look and says “Did you say I have a lot of body fat?” and I burst out laughing. I felt great that day, we were all getting along. When we arrived in London we all felt awesome, a little greasy from being on the plane for almost 24 hours, but so happy to be in a different country. But after a few days together we all started getting at each others throats. When we were at the Louvre, I was saying the same thing Casey had just said because I didn’t hear it and Kyera yelled at me. So I just left them because Kyera was on my nerves as well. That day I felt terrible.
5
Once, I had an experience that seemed almost dream like. Too bad it wasn’t a dream. It was before a basketball game in fourth grade. I don’t know the specific day, time, or who we played. My team was warming up shooting hoops as usual. It was about game time so I pulled of my break away pants only to see that I had forgotten to put on shorts. At that time I realize how I had let this happened. Because at that age basketball is not school sanctioned, but just youth ball, my team didn’t have full uniforms. So, we could wear what ever shorts with our jersey. Well, I had gotten all ready for my game and did have shorts on already but, at the last minute my mom told me to change. So I did take off the pair of shorts I had on. I must have been rushed or something, so just took off the one pair of shorts and without noticing just put my pants back on. So there I was, very embarrassed standing on the side of the basketball court in my underwear. As soon as I pulled of my pants and realized that I was in my underwear I quickly felt small and wished I was even smaller. It was just like a dream the only problem was that I couldn’t just wake up. I wanted to disappear, and the best way for me to do that was just to leave. So I just moved out of the gym into the hallway. In the hall I convinced my mom to let me go home and just leave my team to play without me, telling her it was partially her fault. At the time this event occurred it seemed enormous, but now looking back, I have even been able to laugh at this strange dream like event.
Period 3
I remember one time in the summer before my freshman year in Lincoln, NE when I played a baseball game I will never forget. Since I joined a travel baseball team at age eight, I had never been a great player by any means and because of this I batted ninth in the order every game. Anyways, this game that I will never forget was actually the semifinals of our State Baseball Tournament. Our team, which had nine kids that are now possibly going to play Division 1 Baseball, was the second seed in the tournament and we were to play our hated rivals, the Omaha Cardinals. Coming into the game I had been in a major slump, with the specifics I can't remember. Finally the game started. It started off extremely slow, with both sides only getting 2 combined hits through the second inning. Then I came up to bat in the top of the third, and I was still frustrated about my struggles at the plate from recent history. The first pitch came and I swung and missed. I looked up at my coach and he gave me encouragement, but I could tell that he thought I was hopeless. Then the second pitch came in and the next thing I knew, I was sliding into second base with a double. Even though I did not score, I remember feeling a sense of confidence I had been lacking. After that, the game continued to be tight, and it ended up being 3-3, going into extra innings. In the first extra inning of play, I came up again (I singled and then grounded out in my second and third at-bats, respectively) with the go-ahead run on second base. When I went up, I remember not thinking at all. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat with the count at 2-2, I hit a double far over the head of the left fielder, and the run scored. We ended up winning the game 5-3. After the game was over, I remember my teammates in awe that I, the smallest and weakest player on the team at that moment in time, had hit so well that game, especially the fact that I was able to hit the double of the left fielder’s head. Obviously, I grew a lot very quickly.
5
A time i felt that i "grew" was a couple weeks ago when our dance team competed at Yankton High School. We had beaten the schools that normally were very difficult to beat. We were all so excited and shocked, and it is a competition we will never forget.
The moment where i grew from 5'8'' to 7'8'' was when i went to warped tour this summer. Warped tour is a tour with about three hundred bands and i love seeing all my favorite bands in one place in one day. Sometimes the rockstars walk around like normal people to check out the other bands. Well me and my best friend Shauna were sitting on the cement catching up on the day together waiting for Motion City Soundtrack's set. They played around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We went and watched then we went back to where we were sitting to wait for another set. I looked up and saw the guitarist of Motion City Soundtrack standing about ten feet away leaning on a fence just looking at all of the kids walking around. I got the guts to go up to him and ask for a picture. He was kind of a jerk about it but he did let me take a picture with him. That was about all i could talk about for the rest of the week. I think Chief Bromden has to grow like this and maybe he would gain confidence. Before that moment where i got the guts to walk up and start talking to the guitarist i was very shy and would hold back my thoughts. Ever since this moment i have spoken my mind and don't really think anything of it. Chief Bromden would really benefit from just going out of his comfort zone once or twice and gain some confidence and would maybe stop holding himself back and hiding.
period 1
I have had a lot of ups and downs in my lifetime, good times and bad. I have grown from life experiences but have also shrunk from them too. Even though I am expressing the same event as Paige, it was just so remarkably appalling that I have to write about it. I am talking about my sophomore year when we beat Roosevelt in the State AA Girls Basketball Tournament! We, being the 8th seed in the Tournament, conquered them, the number one seed! In the beginning, we started on an aggressive run and got up on them eight to two. Then increased the score some more...and more...until the score read 20 to two in the first quarter! Our defense was impeccable, our aggressive play was overpowering, and our shooting was exemplary. At halftime we were up by twenty or so. And what did our coaches say to us in the locker room you ask? Stomp on them. That's exactly what we needed to hear because that revved us up even more and we did just that. The third quarter came around and we still kept the lead but the deficit was becoming less comfortable. They made a run at us between the 3rd and 4th quarters which shook us a little but didn't defeat us. As the game was nearing four minutes to play, they began fouling us. Being the point guard and possessing the ball a lot, I was the one to foul. Lindsey Johnson was also a ball carrier like me and we both ended the night sinking nine of ten free throws. This sealed the win and as soon as the scoreboard read Brandon 64, Roosevelt 46 with zero seconds left, the entire high school crowd came rumbling onto the court to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in State history. And did I mention they had six incredibly talented seniors and which half of them we 5 foot, 11 inches? We crushed their dreams of a state title because we came out with loads of intensity and heart. We believed in ourselves and each other and thats all it took. I will never forget this game or the people I played it with. It feels like it was just yesterday the Brandon Valley girls basketball team pulled off a stunner, a mind-boggler, and a miracle. At first, it took awhile to let it sink in, but now it has and its the best feeling. On that day, I truly felt like I was twenty feet tall. Now I'm hoping this year will have just as much excitement, if not more.
p.3
Last year in Mrs. Stemwedel's second period English class I can recall a moment when I "shrunk." On this partiular day I was challenged by another student to throw and stick a sharp wooden pencil into a ceiling tile. Most days I probably wouldn't attempt such a feat; but I was being challenged by the usual trouble maker of the class, because he has to chicken to do it. So, being the competive person I am, I got up and sharpened a wooden pencil and started throwing it at the ceiling. It took me close to ten tries before I finally got it to stick. Since it took so many tries I figured Mrs. Stemwedel would have seen me tring to get the pencil stuck or would have seen the pencil stuck in the ceiling, but she didn't. I waited a few minutes to see if she would notice, but nothing was said, so I said to my self, "hey I have another wooden pencil lets see if I can get another one stuck." So, I go to the front of the class and sharpen pencil number 2. Upon getting back to my desk I unlaod pencil number 2 toward the ceiling and stick it on the first try. The only difference this time was Mrs. Stemwedel caught me red handed. Mrs. stemwedel probably could have sent me to the office but she didn't. Instead she punished the whole class. On this day we were going to get to watch about a half and hours worth of "Remeber the Titans," but because of my actions my class was not reworded with this opportunity. As Mrs. Stemwedel explained the punishment, I instantly "shrunk," as I looked around the room I could tell by the body language and facial expressions of my classmates that they were pissed. To this day Mrs. Stemwedel can not belive I did that, but I thank her for not sending me down to the office.
P.3
There are many times where I grew in life and also where I shrunk, it's just more difficult to admitt when I shrunk than it is when I grew. A time when I shrunk happened my sophomore year during state basketball. The night before we just got done beating the number one seed Roosevelt. That was so amazing because nobody was expecting it; they were already looking ahead to Roosevelt being in the championship game. But even though we had beaten Roosevelt, we had to win one more game to make it to the championship game. We played Watertown the next night, and I think are heads were still big from the night before and we came out not prepared. We were down twenty at the end of the first quarter. But we fought really hard to take the lead by one at half. But unfortunately we lost that game in the first quarter. Even though we had the lead a few times during the second half, it still wasn't enough. Are heads went from being huge to tiny in just minutes. It was the worst feeling ever to shrink that fast. And unfortunately are shrinking continued into the next night also. From that awful experience, I know for a fact that our team has learned a valueable lesson. We will not start celebrating or growing unitl we hear the last buzzard of the championship game go off.
P. 3
I have had many moments in my life where I have "shrunk" or "grew" instantly. Even daily there are moments where I feel small and moments where I feel huge. Each of those moments has made me a better and stronger person. There is one specific moment that clearly sticks out in my memory and will be one that I will never forget. It was November 10, 2007 in Yankton, SD. It was the day of the first ever Competitive State Cheer and Dance Competition. When the Brandon Valley cheer team hit the floor I felt very small because I didn't know the outcome of our performance and whether we were good enough to be state champions. At the end of the competition the cheer team waited anxiously in a circle for the results. When it came time for the announcement of the State AA Cheer Champions my heart was pounding and after a pause Brandon Valley was called. I grew ten times my normal size because we were now the first ever sanctioned cheer team to win a state championship. I felt huge because our team finally proved that competitive cheer was a sport and we finally deserved the recognition we had wanted for so long. Later that night we performed at the half time of the state football game and I felt on top of the world. From that point on I felt like I was important and the cheer team gained a bond that will never break. It is a moment that puts a smile on my face every time I think of it. Now, when ever I am at a point in my life where I feel like I am "shrinking" I just think back to that spectacular November day and I gain the strength to "grow" and become a stronger person.
Pd. 5
The most recent growing or shrinking moment I had was in the football game against Yankton this year. I had just gotten in the game and it was the second play I was in when the unthinkable happened. There was a nit call on and I came full speed around through the o-line. I saw the quarterback and he was just inches away from me it seemed. My eyes got huge and I didn’t even notice anything else around me but him. But just as I stepped to tackle him my knee gave out and I was lying at his ankles. All I can really remember after that was that I tried to get back up and get him again, but I just fell right back down because I couldn’t stand on my own. I felt horrible! Not only did I miss a sack, but also I would later find out it would be the last play I would ever play. Chad came out as I was lying on the field to see what was wrong with me. He told me he thought it was just a sprained knee, but I think he knew what really happened but he didn’t want to tell me until he knew for sure. So they helped me off the field and I sat on the bench and iced my knee for the rest of the night hoping for the best. Then the next morning I went to a walk in clinic to see what they thought had happened. They too also thought that I had just sprained my knee, but they told me to get an MRI just to be sure. So I went and got an MRI a couple of days later. It wasn’t until one of the JV games when I was standing on the sideline watching when Chad told me he had gotten the results from the MRI. I was devastated and felt as if I was going to pass out when he told me that I had torn my ACL and Meniscus. Of course everybody knows what happens to your season when that happens to you, DONE. At first I didn’t even realize the whole picture of it and it didn’t even sink in until the Worthington game when I knew I would never play football again. I had played football every year since 3rd grade and now I cant even finish the last year I can ever play, that is what makes me shrink and become depressed. But on the other side of that I would never trade the times I had playing football for anything. I would die for those guys! And that is what football is about is to make you grow and become a man.
pd.5
I have grown and shrunk in a ton of different years over my lifetime, I cannot even think of them all, but this one was by far the worst. It started out on a cold January day at the bottom of a very tall, steep, hill sitting on a snowmobile right outside of Spearfish, SD. That night it snowed three and a half feet so the powder was amazing. I was with my dad, my dad's friend, and his son, who is also my neighbor that i've known forever. My friend bet me that I could not climb the hill on my snowmobile, so being the competitive person I am I said I could. I started at it, it was a slow slope and then about a 70 degree slope, like insanely steep, I nailed it, almost hit a tree but nailed it. Next my friend tried it and he almost got it but being his track was about a foot and a half shorter than mine he got stuck in the fresh snow. By that time I was thinking I was pretty cool so I was going to go for it a second time. I hit it perfectly, everything was going well until I gave it to much throttle going up the steep part, I felt the skies lift up off the snow more and more, I slammed on the brake trying to set it back down but it was no use. It flipped right over backwards (luckily I jumped off) and rolled about 30 feet down the hill. That was a very expensive fix, my dad was not to proud.
3rd
I’ve gone through a lot of growing and shrinking during my life. I usually don’t like to admit shrinking but everyone knows that it happens to all of us. I believe it was during my sophomore year; my mom had just won three tickets to a Skyforce game, for me and a couple of friends to go and watch. It was great. The seats were unbelievable. They were in the third row, center court. Everything was going right for the Skyforce. They were completely dominating the other team with sweet dunks and blocked shots, along with some wicked three’s. I was feeling pretty studly sitting in those front row seats, watching my team kick some butt. I felt as if I grew as tall as those basketball players on the floor. As the game reached halftime my friends and I decided to go get some food from the concession stands. I decided to get some pizza from the Papa Murphy’s stand. On our way back, we were going up the stairs to return to our sweet seats. On the second step I completely ate it. I feel face first while my pizza went flying in the air. When I got up everyone was staring at my as if I had the spotlight on me. Some people felt bad for me, but nearly everyone who saw it was laughing their butts off. I was so embarrassed. I was also pissed that I dropped my pizza and had do without. My friends couldn’t help but laughing at me either. I immediately came up with the excuse that somebody had spilled some pop and that I slipped on it. That was a lie but I needed something to help me look less foolish, which it didn’t. This all sucked but it was a fun memory. I was laughing about it ten minutes later anyways. Now I will always remember that when you shrink a little; thats it's just part of life and it happens to everyone.
Period 5
A time when i can remember that i shrunk and kind of grew a little was back in 8th grade. In Mr. Bisbees history class. It was when we had to give our speach about a President that we had to research for like a week straight and then at the end of the week we had to present it. If anyone knows me well i hate giving presentations in front of class. I get really nervous and my palms start to sweat. And when i get in front of the crowd i speak really fast. But, anyways Mr. Bisbee told us we were going to presnt our projects on a Thursday so on Thursday morning i played sick and told my mom that my stomach hurt so she let me stay home from school. But little did i know Bisbee changed the days around and we ended up having a game day on Thurday and presented our projects on Friday. When i went to school i felt so unstoppable because i thought i didn't have to present but when i walked into class Bisbee told everyone to get thier projects i was so confused... so i later got it that today was the presnting day.. and unfortunally i got picked first to go. I was so lost. But i gave my presentaion and it went well Bisbee let us sit down and do our slide show and not stand in front of the class so that made me a little less nervous. But i learned just get it over with, because some people might just be a nervous as you and might not show it. In this situation i shrunk because of giving speaches but i also grew in just getting it done first.
Pd.3
Last year was the year that I remember shrinking and growing. It was during competition cheer. At first I shank because my sophomore year I torn my ACL at the end of the basketball season in Yankton. We were warming up in the gymnastics room and I landed one of the jumps I was doing wrong and my knee separated.I had to have surgery and I spent the last part of the school year and half of the summer rehabing. I was not able to be in competative cheer my junior year because I was out for six months. I started to grow a little bit because I was told by the coach that I was still part of the team and that when I was better she would see what she could do to put me in the routine. I ended up being the manager for the year. At the competitions I felt small though because I watched the cheerleaders performing and just wanted to be out there with the team but knew I couldn't. During state I felt little but also grew some because I knew that next year(this year) I could be out there with the team. It is really nice this year to back doing what i love to do and hope that we can do better and end with a great year.
Pd. 3
I can vividly remember many times I have "shrunk" or "grown". The one that stands out is one of the best memories in my life. In October of 2003 my parents told me that they were going to have a baby. I didnt know what to think at first because I was thirteen and my sister was nine and there would be a huge age difference between our new sibling and us. At first I was sort of bummed. I liked my family the way it was. I didnt want another sibling running around causing more chaos. Eventually my mom convinced me to be excited about the new baby. She told me that when my sister was born I was like a "mother hen", I wanted my sister all to myself. I grew angry when people always wanted to hold her. My mom said that she thought the same would happen again because she new I loved holding babies. Since I was thirteen now I thought it would be nothing like that. Well on March 25, 2004, my life changed dramatically. It started out as a normal day. Around 8:30 A.M. I was in school and recieved a message in the office. I didnt think anything of it. The secretary told me that my mom had a baby boy around 7:50 A.M. I was so excited and wanted to leave school right away. I called my grandma and told her to come get me but she wouldnt until school was over. The whole day I was on my tip-toes waiting for school to end! When my grandma picked me up she showed me a picture of by new brother. I was a little upset that my other family members got to see MY brother before I did. When I got to the hopital my mom told me she named him Kaden. I felt like I grew just then because that was the named I picked out for him! The first time I held my brother I changed instantly. I knew for the rest of my life I would have a huge impact on him. I enjoyed babysitting him when he was little and felt like his "second mom". My brother is now four years old and brings joy to my life everyday! I felt like I grew when my brother was born because from then on I had more responsibility in my life. Relatives are always telling me that I grew into a mature teenager when my brother was born. I felt so proud of this and realized I did grow and will always remember that one day that changed my life forever!
Pd.5.
The time when I felt most small was when I first moved to Brandon. I came from Winner South Dakota where I knew everyone and then I get throw in a total loop when I found out I was moving here. I hated the fact that I was moving yet again. Although there was nothing I could do about it. On the first day of school my older sister and I had to ride a bus. I have never ridden a bus to school so this was a scary concept for me and knowing that my sister would only be there half of the way. Because we had to change busses at the high school. So then the next thing I know was that my bus wasn’t heading to the Brandon school but it was heading out of town and I started flipping out. I was so scared that I took the wrong bus and I didn’t know where it was going. Then the buss pulls up to this really tall building and it made me feel so small. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t look like anyone. Growing up on the farm most of my life and then moving here I didn’t look like everyone else. When the first bell rang I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know what to do. No one talked to me and I was too scared to talk to anyone. I was the last person in the school that morning the morning school teacher that was outside saw me crying and then helped me. I walked into the class late. Then before I knew it was recess. I went outside with the rest of the kids. I tried to befriend a girl named Kelsey she said that she didn’t need a friend because she already had her little sister. I was so shocked that people could be so mean. As the school year went on I did make some friends and now I look back on it from time to time when a new student comes into the Brandon school district how it felt to be so small.
Pd.5
There was a definite time when I felt larger than I really was and it was during my teams state baseball tournament two summers ago. I'll give a little background first. Our team that year was pretty average and we lost some players who moved up so we had many holes to fill. We went into the state tourny as major underdogs to even win our first game. We got hot at the right time and beat SF East and Pierre to get into the finals against a good Brookings team. Fast-forward to the tenth inning the score was tied. Playing ten innings in itself was pretty rare because games are only seven innings long. In the top half of the inning Brookings scored two runs and looked as if they were going to win the state championship. On our half of the inning I was slated to bat 4th. Before I knew it our first three men reached and I was up with the bases loaded. I felt the pressure but just focused on what I had to do and that was to get atleast one run in. I'm not a great baseball player but I'd say I'm good ball player, so I was confident I could do my job. I cant remeber what the count was but a few pitches into my at bat the pitcher left one over the plate and I pulled a liner to left. As soon as I hit it I got a surge of adrenaline because it was going to be a tough play for the left-fielder. The fielder dove for it but came up short and it rolled past him. All the men on base sprinted as fast as they could. We needed three runs to score to win and thats how many we got on my hit. As soon as the winning run scored I ran to meet my team at the plate, who already cleared the benches in celebration. I felt like I was on top of the world jumping up and down and hugging my team mates. We just won the state baseball tournament in the bottom of the tenth inning. The emotion was underscribable. The feeling of being a champion is like none other and I was undoubtely felt larger than I was. I remained on that high all night until the next morning when two-a-days started and I was brought back down to earth.
My moment actually just occurred on Thursday. I was going over to Jake's house for our senior dinner for football. I was coming around the corner on a gravel road and took it a little too fast. I immediately realized I was going to go into the ditch, and the first thing I saw was the tree I was heading directly for. Josh Mulder was in the car and all we could do was laugh about it. It was a steep ditch and my car was only part way in. However, my right rear tire was off the ground. It is a front wheel drive car; all I could do was spin the tires. So I asked Josh to call Jake to come tow me out; so Jake, Andrew, and Mike all came in Mike's truck. His truck was too, light though. Luckily Adam was driving by, so he towed me out. I was pretty embarrassed when I walked into Jake's house because everyone was making fun of me. That is the second time I have been in that ditch, at the same spot, but the first time I was in someone else's truck. I think I have learned my lesson not to take that corner too fast anymore.
7
I remember a specific time where I grew. I was twelve years old, in Knoxville for the National TaeKwonDo championships. The place was packed and had people from all over the country. I was one of the few people from my gym that was qualified to compete at the tournament. I spent the whole day waiting for my turn to spar. I waited in the stands, with a group of competitors, then waited some more for a ring to open up for our use. My first match lasted about ten seconds, since he quiet after i kicked him in the head. My second was much harder, since the kid was bigger than I was. But again I won. The last match though was the worst. It was against my opponet from regionals that I had lost to. He was also about six inches taller than me. The matches are made up of two three minute rounds with a minute break in between. But since the first round began, it seemed like hours past till it ended. Since he was so big it was hard to get past his guard and land a blow on him, since he would hit me before and after I hit him. But some how I managed to dodge, dip, dock, dive, and wiggle my way out of his attacks to have scored more hits than him. Because, at the end of are match the referee raised my hand proclaiming me the winner. I had beatten my rival from regionals and claimed my title as best in the nation. On the stand for first, second, and third, he was nearly as tall as I was. Also, i was the only non black guy who had placed.
I remember a time that I really felt alot bigger then I was, considering that im only 5'9. We were in a baseball tournement in sioux falls against a hyped up Aberdeen baseball team (who won state the year before that). Before that game our team was doing good and everyone seemed to be rolling until we played them. I was pitching and through 3 innings I was throwing a no hitter, not being the best pitcher but I would say a fairly decent one (NO Darren Niklason of course). The game was tied 0-0 and are bats just couldn't get going, then going into the top of the 4th innning I struck out there 1st batter then Jarred Hannigan was up, who has a pretty good reputation in every sport he was in and he hadn't got a hit yet today so I tried to keep it that way. But then he hit a pop up that was routine to Kevin Nelson, who probably hasn't made one error on the season drops the pop up and he stayed at first on an error. Not a big deal, then the next batter on the first pitch I make a move to pick of the runner and he was called safe. I did not agree with the call, somewhat livid,I say in a very nice and reasonable way I said something to that ump. who did not agree with me tosses me from the game. During probably one of the best games that I have ever thrown almost feeling untouchalbe until the umpire kicked me out of the game and I shrank a tremendous amount knowing that I have just let my hole team down for a greddy mistake. We ended up losing that game 8-0 and lost the next one, because of my arrogance and greed.
Period 7
I can remember when I felt extremely small. My eight grade year I ran varsity cross country. I wasn't the best on the team so I felt like I needed to prove to everyone that I did matter. I work hard everyday and just kept doing extra workouts. Eventually I no longer was small but on the same playing feild as everyone else. Throughout the season I was always being beaten by the upper class men once again making me feel small because my hard work wasn't working in the races. I soon found that it didn't matter how much I trained in practice it didn't make up for my mind set. I wanted to win for all the wrong reasons which where holding me back. Once I learned that I needed to win for me not for proving a point I was able to move up on the team. Working my way past the other people. Yet I still was unable to beat one person, the top runner on the team, Ashely Hammer. My goal was to finally pass her in one of the meets but it didn't seem like it was going to happen becuase I was no where close to her. Well to my suprise the last meet of the season, state, things changed. When the gun went off I just took off with nothing in my mind but to reach that next person in front of me. By the end of the race not only did I pass most of the other runners I had finally passed the top runner for Brandon. I didn't know what was going on but I just kept running and finished. When i crossed the finish line I couldn't believe that I had accomplished my goal. I was now the top runner for Brandon. Nothing could make me feel small anymore. I felt like a giant and nothing could bring me down from my cloud.
Period 6
My most memorable moment where I "grew" was in the summer of '07 when my team won the 15-16 year old state baseball tournament. Throughout the year our team was well below average. We posted a record of 12 wins and 29 losses during the regular season. Going into regionals as the lowest seed we were a long shot to make it to the state tourney. We managed to defeat a great team in Sioux Falls West our first game and then Mitchell the next game to punch our ticket to the tourney. Going in as the 8th and last seed we went up against perennial powerhouse Sioux Falls East. We played a nearly mistake free game managed to come out on top. Our next opponent was the Pierre Governors who we defeated after another game of solid baseball. Finally we had reached the championship game where few thought we would be. We were up against Brookings, a team that was loaded from top to bottom and we knew we would have to play another near perfect game if we wanted to come out victorious. Both defenses played amazing and we were tied after our usual game length of seven innings. Neither team could muster up a run and before we knew it we were in the tenth inning. Brookings being the away team was at bat during the top half of the inning. They scored 2 runs and almost everyone thought that the fairytale ending had finally come to a close. We went into the bottom of the 10th and I was due up third. Our first two batters reached safely and i came up to bat against one of the top pitchers in the state. I worked the count until it was full and then managed to draw a walk. I was the winning run on first base. Darren Niklason came up to bat and drove a line drive to left field. The left fielder dove too early and the ball rolled past him toward the fence. I knew i would have to haul if I was going to score all the way from first. After rounding second I looked at the third base coach giving me the signal to run home. I then slid into home plate and before I knew it I was surrounded by teammates. I was the game winning run and I felt larger than life in the middle of that jumping herd of teammates and friends. We had done what nobody thought was possible and our whole team was going absolutely berserk.
A time where i grew or thought i was bigger than i was last year at a hockey game on a Sunday Morning. It was Sunday morning in the adult "b" league and the last game of the regular season. I was playing with the PBR team and we were playing against the Samuel Adams team. The teams in B league are sponsored by beer. I was by far the youngest kid out there and it was my first actual game in this league. The score was 2-2 with about six minutes left in the third period. Our team was a big under dog and i was only playing on the team because somebody on the team originally was on vacation some where. I was playing left wing for them. I came in on and right away received the pass on their blue line and started down the right side of the boards i was going down behind the net and i got hooked and fell and went crashing along the boards. The ref called it and the guy had to go into the penalty box for two minutes and that meant a power play with about 2 minutes and 45 minutes left in the game. I got big pads on the back for drawing the penalty. I took a breather for about a minute of the powerplay. I came back in on a quick line change when they cleared the puck out of their zone. Once again i caught the puck on my stick at mid-ice with one man to beat, i deked left then right and got really really low and tried to get around him. I got around him and was low and i looked back quick saw my team mate making a quick charge to the net. I had my stick pointed at my teammate and my eyes on him. Goalie must of bit because i brought the stick back to my right side and flipped it in and hit the top of net inside the goal. I was so excited i just kinda forgot how to skate right after and i ran into the boards just happy as can be. My four other teammates greeted me with hugs and yells. I skated back to the bench and they were tapping their sticks against the side boards all just excited. We won the game 3 to 2. I just felt huge after that game and it also gave me more confidence to become a better hockey player.
1
There has been many times in my life where I've felt high and then where I've felt low. It happens to everyone on a regular basis. One of my occasions when I felt low was when Dr. Talcott told me once I got to Freshman Unity day that I had to speak in front of everyone in the PAC. That meant in front of the all the freshman and my senior class. I had to speak about getting involved in activities and gettting to know new people. Well, I really don't like giving speeches and this one was in front of a whole bunch of people and it was a more in depth speech like about your personal experiences so it felt kind of weird. Luckily, Dr. Talcott put me into a group of 4 people who also had to talk on the same subject so it wasn't too bad once we spaced out which person would talk about each topic. Also, the other people I talked with were TJ P, Paige P, and Casey S who I know so it made the experience more comfortable. Well, once the time came when the microphone came to me I was nervous at first but I just focussed on not squeaking, which would have been embarrasing, and I talked about one of my experiences which went fine and then I was done. The whole time I was up there waiting to talk I just felt nervous and didn't want to be noticed. But, once I got talking I realized I hadn't done so bad. I think it was a good experience and next time I have to speak in front of a larger group I won't sweat is as much.
pd 5
I can remember one specific moment that I grew instantly. That moment was when my teammates and I won the Roy Griak Invitational. Griak is the largest cross country meet in the Midwest. There are two high school divisions in the meet, maroon and gold. We were in the small school one, the maroon. It was the largest race of the day with over fifty teams and nearly 500 runners. Being one of the smaller schools in the division nobody was expecting much from us. Although it was our second year running there we were very nervous. We had high expectations for ourselves but, we never could have expected the result. After watching eight races before us it was our turn. BANG! 500 runners sprint ahead. 200 meters into the race everyone squeezed into a ten meter wide path. Our team was in good position and it was looking good. At the end of the race I found my teammates and found out that we had put two people in the top ten. This was outstanding considering no one else had even put two in the top twenty. We went back to camp thinking that we had done well and thought that we had placed in the top five teams. We watched the girl's race that was right after ours. Then everyone gathers around the award stand and announces the top twenty individuals then the top ten teams. After my two teammates go up and receive their awards they start the team awards. When they work their way down to the final five we expect to hear our names called any time. Fifth, fourth, Brandon Valley still not called. Third, second, no Brandon Valley, we must not have placed. Then first place is announced, BRANDON VALLEY. We not only won but, won by a huge amount. The team and I go up to receive our trophy and get free t-shirts for winning. When we took the stand I felt like I was a giant.
7
A time when I grew would have been my sophomore year at Elkton Public School. I was a running back for the junior varsity football team. We where playing our second game of the season after a loss to Colman-Eagan. Our opponent was Estelline. The game was on a cold fall day on the opponent’s field, a usual day when Estelline’s hosts a sporting event. The game started and went on neck and neck with either side not showing any chance of letting each other score. The game was coming towards the end and we had the ball. Our coach ordered a play giving me the ball. The team lined up and the quarterback yells out “Down! Set! Hut! Everyone took off at full speed the quarterback hands me the ball, my lead back picks up a block ahead threw the hole that the lineman have made. I went in with my shoulders down hits the opposing team and spun around and around, then looking forward and running as fast as my legs would take me scoring after a 30 yard run. The game finished with a 6-0 ending.
For the rest of the season I had the greatest running game of my foot career. I scored an average of three to four touchdowns a game. We overcame each other opponent scoring 30 points or more against them. This is also the same year our varsity went to the dome for the first time in Elkton’s history. But not just overcoming the odds and making it there we also made it there undefeated. Heading to the dome was an experience in itself also knowing that I had a part in helping the team get there by practicing with the varsity, preparing them for there upcoming games. But with all our excitement ended with a defeat to the Parker Pheasants. But for all of us, even though we lost we where all exciting to have made it that far and experience playing in the championship and coming out with the 2nd best team in the state, tying with Parker with a 11-1 record.
7
I remember a recent time where i instantly shrunk. Before the event i felt as tall as a mountain and after i felt as small as a mouse. The event that made me "shrink" was giving up Yankton's first offensive touchdown of the year. Leading up to this point our football team had been doing extraordinarily well. Our first game was against O'G and i was nervous for my first start, but i survived. Of course I made mistakes, however nothing that gave up a score. Aberdeen was the same way. I felt that i played a little better and my confidence was rising. For the yankton game I Finnally got to run through the tunnel and that made me grow even taller. I felt invincible. You could say i felt as if i were on top of the world. Then all of this was taken away in one play. We were playing cover 2 and my responisibilty was a deep half. I knew nothing must get be hind me. I saw the reciever run a fade or a corner, some sort of deep route. I looked back at the quarterback and saw him throw the ball and it looked as if it were going short. I thought to my self, oh i can jump this easy. I ran up to make the play only to see the ball loft over my head into the recievers hands. My heart sank and i knew i had made a major mistake. I tried my hardest running him down but he had too much of a lead on me. I didnt want to go to the sideline because i knew what was going to happen i knew that i was going to get talked to and i wanted to shrivel and hide in my corner. I wanted to be like chief bromdem and act deaf and mute. I didnt want to hear what people were going to say to me and i didnt want to say anything about it i just wanted to hide. Luckily i survived my talking too and my coaches and teamates lifted me back up and i continued to play. Maybe someone, perhaps mcmurphy will lift chief's spirit up and make him "better" again similar to what happened to me.
pd.7
The time when I remember when I “grew” was back when I was 9 yrs. old. I was at Waterville Valley, NH for the United States of America Snowboard Association (USASA) competition. I had made it to nationals in half-pipe, slope-style, and boarder-cross. The event that I "grew" in was boarder-cross, and that is a race between four people who race down the mountain going over jumps, bumps, and around gates. I had made it to the finals and was very stoked, considering it was my first nationals. I got ready for the race and when it was race time I was ready to go. The race started and I felt very good and composed. When I crossed the finish line I realized that I had gotten third. That moment was very exciting but when the awards were going on I was even more excited because I knew I got to go up on the awards stand. When the announcer called my name the crowd roared, which made me feel very proud. The person put the metal around my neck, and that is a very good feeling. When I was standing up on the awards stand people were screaming for me and even people who I didn’t know. I felt so happy to show people that even if you do live in South Dakota you can still compete with the best. I didn’t want the moment to end, but all good thinks come to an end, unfortunately. That moment was one of my most proud moments knowing people were cheering for me and that I actually had gotten third in such a big competition. Even though that was a time when I “grew” it even felt as though I “grew” when I got back home. Everyone was like congratulations, good job, and way to go.
Period 5
I remember a time just like it was yesterday that I "shrunk" instantly. It was a little over two years ago. I had just moved to Brandon and was very nervous about starting school. I had tried out for the cheer team and had luckily made it. Even though I had some of those girls to talk to I was still nervous about making new friends. It was the first day of school and I had no idea what to do or where to go. I felt like I was about three feet tall. Even though I was nervous for the whole day I was mostly nervous for lunch. I didn't really have any friends so I didn't know where I was going to sit. I finally saw a cheerleader that I knew, Emily Grote. I was so grateful for her because she was the one who came and found me and told me to go sit with her. I only wished that she could come to all of my classes me. It was probably for about the whole first year at school that I just felt like I didn't really belong there. Nobody seemed to want to talk so I pretty much just sat by myself in all of my classes and didn't say much. It was much different than I had expected it to be because in Watertown I had plenty of friends and they all promised me that I wouldn't have a problem making new friends. It was crazy because I just acted like a whole different person when I came to Brandon Valley High School. Usually I am a very outgoing person who tries not to care what people think of me. But when I came here on that first day of school I would barely even talk. I cared about what people thought of me so I thought that it would be easier just not to say anything. My junior year things got a little bit better and I made a few friends. This was all a great learning experience for me because I realized that I just need to be myself.
pd.7
I had a few moments this summer when I shrunk. My best friend sort've got in a lot of trouble over summer break. She wasn't getting along with her mom and was dealing with a lot at the time. She came over one night and so did a few of my other friends, we were all just hanging out. Well I could tell my best friend wasn't really acting how she normally did and I could tell something was up. It got late and everyone left. The next day I couldn't get a hold of her and neither could any of her other friends, we got really worried. A week went by and none of us had heard from her. One of our friends got a hold of her mom and was told she had tried to od on 17 sleeping pills (the night she had hung out with us); her po figured out something was wrong when she was throwing up the next morning. She was sent to the hospital that day and the next straight to jdc. I shrunk instantly when hearing the news. I felt horrible; like it was my fault I didn't see it coming. I also shrunk instantly when I found out she didn't want to be friends with anyone but one of her friends. I felt horrible. Recently I grew though. My friend is out of jdc now and does still want to be friends.
pd. 1
The most recent time I can remember that I have grown, figuratively, is when my friend Ashley Schelling told me that I had made it into the All State Orchestra, last year. I have audition for the orchestra since my freshman year, spending months and years preparing for each audition in the fall. The music is generally given to the students at the end of May giving us all summer and fall to prepare for the big audition in mid- October. My freshman and sophomore years I was unsuccessful at making the cut of the state’s best. So, when my junior year came around, I was even more nervous than before. My private teacher was positive on my progress but, I was still unsure in my self. The competition is always changing with new students becoming freshman, getting new teachers, and the general difficulty of the pieces. The audition consists of a written test over 150 words of music terms and composers, the general audition over 3 concert pieces; 1Bach, 1 Etude, and a scale. I remember standing out side the room where we audition trying to remember everything I have learned over the summer and pervious years. I have to say, standing in front of that judge just waiting for him to pick what ever he wants you to play, is one of the most nerve racking things I have done. After my audition, like all my other auditions I have done throughout out my career, I felt horrible. Talking about everything that I did wrong, positive I didn’t do anything right. We waited for our audition results to be posted on the website for the next couple of days. I would get home and check about ever half hour, my parents doing the same while I was at school. Finally I was told they were posted and that Ashley was going to tell me in 8th period. I was told in 7th… I couldn’t sit still for that whole period. Finally I made it to 8th, she runs up to me and gave me a huge hug and told me that we both made it.
5
I remember I was in 5th grade at the time. At this age, I was on the Step By Step Limelights dance team for my 3rd year. This certain year I decided to learn and dance solo and compete with it. Our team traveled to the Mitchell Corn Palace for a major competition in which I was competing with my solo for one of the first times. The solo had to follow a few requirements such as within the time of 30 seconds. Before I took the floor, I grew nervous with each minute before I performed. I remember shrinking as I look at the faces in the crowd thinking "I hope I don't mess up", repeating through my brain. The announcer called my name to take the floor and stand in my pose. The music boomed and raced through the gym to my ears. I began dancing and shaking "my stuff" trying to do the very best I could. Finially, the music ended and I sat in my ending position as the crowd cheered. Later that day, the awards were announced but first they announced the top five solist who would then perform agian for the top spots. We all waited in anticipation. "Casey Strand" roared from the speakers and my team grew estatic with excitment as my heart raced with joy. I ran with my mother to change into my solo outfit and perform for the last time of that competion. All the other top solist were high school girls, again I felt small thinking how could I ever beat those girls. My mother told me to go out and try my best and just have fun, so I did.I ended up not winning, but I did recieve a shirt. But the biggest accomplishment was being the first little girl ever to make it in the top five, which I grew and grew for days. That was definitely one of the best times of my life and really truely grew from that experience.
Per. 3
One time I felt smaller than I normally am occurred my first day in the Brandon school district. I was starting my last year of middle school, but felt as if I was starting kindergarten all over again. Being a new student in a community of tight knit people, where everyone knows each other, and have been going to school together since first grade, made it intimidating. I knew no one and had no idea how things worked; at my previous school I knew most the people and rules. I kept to myself and tried to remain as small as possible as to not get noticed, but the lovely people of Brandon would not have that. The other children extended a hand of hospitality and made my first day as easy as it could be. Even with the help of the other students, I still felt small. I knew no one personally and didn't know how I was going to fix the problem. Each day I would get better at names, and faces, I got lost less and less, and could feel my self grow, figuratively of course. I felt my confidence grow with every smiling face that greeted me in the hall ways and felt larger with every passing day. Not only did I grow figuratively, I also grew emotionally. I became more positive and out going. I had more energy and was a whole lot more optimistic than I ever was. I met new people and new people met me. I made friends with exciting and interesting people; most of which I still keep in regular contact with. I feel the saying you make and lose friends all the time is fictitious, because I still talk to all the friends I can. The people around me inspire the confidence that makes me who I am, and my confidence makes me larger than any other person.
Kjerstin
pd. 7
I have been in dance for about ten years all together. I quit for a short time and recently started up again. When i was younger, I did all kinds of solos and team competitions. Well, I had a pretty strong solo and had pretty strong solos for about two years, so I wasn't very afraid of anything. I had prepared by solo for about four months and ended up at a competition in Sioux City. I went out on the floor for my time to show what I had practiced so many times before, and was pretty confident about it. I was about halfway through my routine when all of a sudden..I blanked. I could not for the life of me remember what was to go next. I remember standing in the middle of the floor for about ten seconds, looking at my mom for help like somehow she would be able to tell me what goes next. Of course, she didn't, and I was left to just make the rest up. So, I did the best I could in the making the rest up, and thankfully remembered the last thirty seconds of it. I walked off of the floor when I was finished and immediately ran to my mother's arms crying. It didn't help that she also happened to video tape it so I have evidence of how horribly I screwed up. It took some time but I got over it, and moved on to my next competition to try at it again. I had fully prepared my routine in a way I was sure not to forget it. Alas, I forgot...again!! Needless to say, that was the end of my solo dancing career. I shrunk in a way that I felt like I had failed myself. Somehow my mind had defeated me into thinking that I could not remember my routine. I will probably never try it again, but it helped me to overcome myself, and to remember that things are always mind over matter.
I remember a time that I shrunk instantly when i was in the 4th grade. My grandfather had just died along with my great grandfather and great uncle and those three deaths were extremely hard for me and i thought nothing else could be worse. One day my mom came home from work and called my brother and I into the living room because she has some bad news and all I could think of is now what? She broke the news to us that our great grandma florence had passed away and instantly i felt like a ton of bricks was on my shoulders. Thats the person i was the closest with in my family. Even though she was my great grandma she was a young, cool and hip grandma unlike most. I didn't know what I was going to do that ment we had to sell there house and everything, which is where all of our family events were held. The day of her wake I could not even look in her cascet. Her funeral day came and we all huddled into the little church and I instantly starting bawling when the service begain. Noone understood what I was going threw I felt, because I believe I was the closest kid to her than all the other grand children. Of course everyone had to stand up that was a part of the family and say a little special moment about grandma florence we shared with her and I couldn't even get words out. At the lunch everyone was socializing and then I realized maybe that she'll be happier this way or its for the better and everything happens for a reason. We have had no deaths in the family since that year thank god and I hope we will not have to go threw any soon.
I’ve had plenty of experiences where I grew or shrunk instantly, but one time at work sticks out the most. I had been having a pretty crappy day carrying out for people and I had dealt with a few really rude people so I wasn’t in the best mood. I had been a checker for about an hour and had sold a lady the wrong cigarettes, and since the lady had to make me feel worse about it she came in and yelled at me in front of the whole store. I sometimes think its funny how much little things piss people off. I also had to clean the bathrooms earlier in the day because one of our other employees had “forgotten” to clean them earlier. I went to the front of the store to grab the mop and on my way back I had accidentally spilled some water on the floor. As I got done cleaning the bathrooms I went towards the front of the store to carryout an order, but as I stepped through the door I slipped on the water I had spilled before. As if it wasn’t bad enough to have my manager see it all on camera, there were ten or fifteen people in the aisle staring at me; some of them laughing. No one asked me if I was alright but I had gotten a lot of mean comments the rest of the day. Not only was it embarrassing but its not like a brought a spare pair of pants to work in, so I had to spend the rest of my shift walking outside in the cold weather with soaked pants and getting weird looks from every direction. Even though it was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life I’m sure in the future I will laugh about it.
Period 1
One of my treasured memories of growing is when I became a Christian. I became a Christian when I was sixteen! It was at the LIFELIGHT festival when the moment came. I never felt so exhilarated in my life! I will never forget it! Believe it!
The event happened at the beginning of my junior year. I was struggling with my grades and relationships with my friends. Everything seemed to be going wrong and not right, upside down instead of right side up. I heard from my one of my close friends, (not using real name) Nikki, that LIFELIGHT, a Christian tour, was coming to Sioux Falls that weekend. For three days, Friday through Sunday, Christian bands, speakers, and other events were going to come and rock out loud! So, Nikki and I, along with her family, went to LIFELIGHT. Friday, to me, not much happened. I wondered around alone to see what was there. The summer climate was still in the air and the heat beaded down my brow. I thought I would melt like an ice cream cone! However, I didn’t let that stop me from walking around on my feet all day. I forgot to take a chair with me to sit in. So, I had to stand all day and drink barrels of water to stay hydrated.
The next day, Nikki’s family and I went together again to LIFELIGHT. Again, I forgot my chair! I always do that! With the little money I had with, I bought some water and walked toward the main stage. The announcer said that Phil Joel, from New Zealand, was the next person to come the stage. I heard screams and oh yeahs in the crowd. I shrugged off the fact and walked across to the left side of the stage. Then, in a booming voice, a man came out. He had long, blonde, bouncy curly hair! He also had a nice tan! He’s Phil Joel! I was amazed at what he looked like! Wow, I never saw a person from New Zealand before! However, the most amazing part was when he started singing!
The words were a fluent river flow to my heart and soul! The words and the beat spoke to me! I could feel the power in the words! Believe it!
I dropped to my knees and cried tears of joy! I realized that God was always there, waiting for me to open the door to let him in. Now, I know from now on, the God will always be there for me and will be ready to listen! Believe it!
can i still leave a comment? Pd.1 JAron
1
There have been multiple times in my life when I have grown and shrunk. The time that really sticks out in my mind when I shrunk, is when I was snowmobiling with a couple of my good friends on a snow day. It was about four years ago when we had the day off, so mike,shane, and I got together and planned that we would go over to Mike's dad's (Burd) shop to try out his new sleds. So we go over there and get ready, and we go for about an hour or so. Then we meet up and Burd said "well, lets go around one more time then head in". So we go, and about half way around or so, I don't remember exactly, I hit a rock that was about three foot tall, which was hidden under a snowdrift. The weird thing is, is that I don't remember the crash or even a day after it either, which was most likely the effects from the pain killers they had me on and just the pure shock that I was going through. I ended up getting three scars on my face, since I didn't where a helmet, a broken jaw, and some back issues. But my parents told me that if I hit the rock to the right of the rock I hit, I wouldn't be here, so I'm pretty thankful that I'm still here playing sports and doing other things. The second day, I finnally got out of the hospital, I remember trying to walk and I couldn't. So Jasen had to push me out on a wheel chair, it was probably the weirdest that I've ever experienced in my life. The couple weeks after was full of sitting on the couch trying to do homework, eating chopped up deer jerky, and drinking malts. When I went back to school I remember that I was really far behind in all of my classes, especially Mrs.C's class. But I got caught up, and did decent in school. The time when I really grew in my life is when we beat OG. Everyone was talking about how horrible Brandon Valley was going to be in football. But at the Pigskin Classic we came out playing at 110% and won 24-21, (it still gives me the goose bumps haha). We proved a lot of people wrong, and hopefully we can finish the year strong, and with a win!!.
Period 1
Kelli Hoff (before due date/time)
A time that I have shrunk was when I went fishing with my dad and younger sister. We were fishing one Saturday afternoon on Lost Lake in our canoe and we were trying all kinds of spots to catch some fish but nothing was biting. Then we moved in a little bay toward the far side of the lake, right by the shoreline and we could see some perch jumping out of the water that were pretty good sized so we decided to try that spot. Even though we did not want to catch perch we thought it might be kind of fun to atleast try catching something. So we threw out our lines and after a little while my sister had caught a perch and a bullhead, but I had not even had a bite yet. So I was patient and waiting for my turn to catch one and all of the sudden my bobber went down and it was my turn. In response I got a firm grip on the pole to start reeling in, while remembering to keep my tip of the pole up and gradually reel the line in. We could tell by the way it was fighting and its swim pattern that it was a bullhead that was going to be a keeper. As I got it next to the canoe I was trying to direct it to the back for my dad to grab and pull in but the fish was fighting for its last hopes at survival making it hard to get right next to the canoe. So I got it back under control and tried bringing it to the side of the canoe once again. This time the fish broke the line, bobber and all. As it swam away you tell where it was going because you could see the bobber that had broken off slowly fade away with the fish still having it connected to its mouth. In that case we all watched as it swam away and started laughing (as I was thinking that I just let the fish win the battle and that I was a loser). Although I did not catch another fish the whole time we were there, my sister made up for it by catching close to 10 or so. I felt like I wanted to shrink because I tried so hard to get the fish in the boat and do everything right when all I did was loose in the end, coming home with nothing of my own. In the end it was a successful day of relaxing and hanging out with the family.
Period 7
Lori Dawidowicz
A moment in my life that I shrank quite a bit and was also a serious slam to the ego was a couple days back. A few weeks ago I had my senior pictures taking and had a absolute blast having them taken. A week later I was able to see them, and enjoyed them throughly as much. I wanted all my realitives to see them so I sent them the website to go to. My grandmother was the first one to look at them (although she had to call me up to even figure out how to access the internet on her home computer, like Broom, I think she is a little scared of technology and modern day mechanisms), she seemed to be very happy with how they turned out. A couple of days ago I was online reviewing my pictures, when doing so my aunt calls me up. I tell her that I'm looking at them so she goes online and does the same. At this point I'm feeling all high and mighty about my pictures. She decides that we will go through them and analyze them. All the pictures she had to put her two cents in, and her two cents was always insulting. Finally we came upon what is my favorite picture and I told her so, in hopes that she would love it just as much as I do. I was wrong, she went on to say how it needed to be cropped, and that I sould not have worn that dress because "It makes you look fat". I couldn't believe she would say that sort of thing. Basically those comments really made my self-esteem lower and put a damper on me. I would expect more out of flesh and blood, but, like Broom, family isn't always the best to you.
Yes, Jaron. You may always earn some credit.
I felt very large and happy to be part of a great family weekend that we planned as part of my brother's basketball tournament. It was going to be 3 days of staying in a hotel with a swimming pool, shopping and just hanging out with friends and family. We were packing up and had noticed that our dog Mac seemed very lethargic, and was not moving around as much as he had in the past. usually Mac got all excited as she thought that she would get to travel with us. We decided to leave Mac in the house and my grandfather said they would check on her regularly as well as our neighborhood friend Ryan. Saturday morning my grandfather went to our home to find our beloved pet sick and not moving. He called us at the tournament and my parents instructed him to take her immediately to the vet. My brother's team had already one two games and was heading to the championship quite easily but now the anxiety of our great dog being sick and getting calls during the tournament were tearing us all down. My grandpa called and the vet had said our dog's blood would not clot, so it had looked like the dog had gotten into some poison. The veterian gave Mac a blood transfusion and during the process she stopped breathing, they revived her but she stopped breathing again. My grandpa called and gave us the bad news. My brother's team and our family was devasted. Going into the tournament into the championship feeling that we were going to to see my brother's team be winners for the third year and having such a great time all seemed so nonimportant. I all of a sudden just crashed with tears and felt smaller than I had ever felt in my life. My brother's team won so we loaded into the car and the ride home was silent. All we could think about was coming home to an empty house, Mac's toys on the ground, her food and bowl just as we left it but no pet to be jumping at us as we opened the door to welcome us back.
5
One time when I grew alot was last year when we performed at state for cheer. After we got done performing I felt like I grew because I knew that we did really well, but then awards came around we were sitting listening to all the other teams place then when it came to second place the first thing we heard was the Br of Brookings and thought the annoucner was going to say Brandon Valley but he didn't. The announcer said Brookings Bobcats and everyone freaked out, then they announced that the state champions were the Brandon Valley Lynx and that we got to go to the dome and perform. It made me feel huge like that no one was better and the we were unstoppable now. But also time when I shrunk alot is when I am doing a show out at Catfish Bay and it comes to star strap doubles and my name gets announced so the whole crowd knows it is me. So then if I fall I shrink alot because everyone knows that it is you that fell.
period 7
I have definitely had times in my life where I either shrank or grew instantly. One such time was when I was playing basketball in eighth grade. I was not known to be a great basketball player, so I had always been on the lowest ranking team (C-team for the eighth grade). This was fine for me because I had always thought that it was funner to be playing on the much more carefree team. The particular game happened to be away at Mitchell and also our last game of the year. We were winning the game at half-time by about 18 points, 6 of which were mine. I was having a pretty good game making the other team turnover the ball and making most of my shots. Nearing the end of the fourth quarter we had somehow managed to lose the lead and were now trailing Mitchell by 6 points. We had somehow stolen the ball twice, and scored, and were now losing by only 2 points. We had the ball out-of-bounds at the half-court line, after a Mitchell player had tripped himself and gone off court. There was 1.2 seconds left on the clock and my coach called a timeout. He explained a play that involved me getting the ball, turning, and then just shooting it from the half-court as best I could; I had stayed extra after one of our practices and the coach had seen me goofing off and swooshing a half-court shot, so he thought that I was our team's best bet. When play resumed I got the ball just as I should have, however, when I turned and shot I threw the ball too far to the right and it missed. I had been hoping for one of those Michael Jordan moments and had failed. My team had also thought that I would make it, so I felt terribly small for the rest of the day; as if I had just let the entire world down.
Per.5
There are so many ups and downs throughout a single day let alone a whole person's life. Some bigger than others. I believe when I feel smallest is when i'm going through the loss of a friend or relative. Death is inevitable, everyone will die sooner or later, it's just not knowing when it's coming that catches many people off guard. It's not being able to protect the one I love that makes me feel so low. You pray and hope and wish for the best, the outcome that leaves everyone healthy and happy. The sad truth is that while miracles can happen most of the time they don't and you're left to cope with the loss of a loved one. You ponder how you can possibly function or continue living life with this person absent in your life. I've been through a series of tough losses and each one leaves me feeling like a lesser version of the man I had once been. Some tougher to move on from than others, and even some that I will never forget. While it may get easier as life goes on, I know that I will have to forever carry the weight of the losses that I've experienced and the ones that have yet to come. I suppose all I can do is take life day by day and roll with the punches, until i'm eventually beat into a coma (Figuratively speaking of course).
pd. 3
I sat here trying to think of a particular event when I grew or shrunk immensely and was unable to come up with one thing in particular. I think that throughout life there have been so many ups and downs I cannot begin to classify their placement in terms of being the biggest or smallest. Everything that happens is important in its own way. If I had to choose it would probably just be memories of drifting from friends and family. There have been many times when I thought that I would not be able to get up and be the same person I was before. Through these trying times I have realized that no matter what happens or how bad things are, the world is still going to keep on spinning. Although it may seem like tomorrow may never come, it will, and rainy days can’t last forever. When I look back at everything that has happened, that’s when I grow the most. I think of the times when I thought it would impossible to face what had happened the day before. I think of bad days that I never thought would end. I think of good times that I hoped would never end. And most importantly I have grown enough as a person to realize that time heals all, forgiveness is divine, and people will judge. Everyone has their faults and everyone makes mistakes. The people you thought would never change do. The people you thought would never hurt you will. And it’s important in life to realize that everything from you’re lowest point to your highest makes you who you are. You’re at a mature point in your life if you can forgive others for the things they have done to you, and also to forgive yourself for the things you’ve done to others. The rollercoaster of life has its ups and downs but its how you take your picture in the tunnel that matters.
Period 1 (Sorry~I'm kind of late)
There are so many times this has happened~if I could make a time line, it would go around the world twice (figuratively speaking). In order to understand what I was doing, I need to brief you on what I like to do. Currently I've been skateboarding for approximately 7 years and my 1st couple of years were the best. My first skateboard competition was in ATL (Atlanta, Ga) in a well known mall called the "Georgia Mall" ~the place is so freak'n' huge its was scary~ The place was called the VANS SKATEPARK and at this time I had been skateboarding for about 2 years and I thought I was pretty "well off." I was so confident that I could enter a contest and win 1st prize at the beginner level competition that I would dream about wining. Boy, was I horribly wrong. Right before you do you "Session", "heat", or "Run" you need practice and do a "Warm~up." (help get you pumped up and warmed up, and to decide your tricks). 5 minutes into my "warm~up" I do a kick flip down a 7 stair wooden set and twist my ankle, 10 minutes later it started to hurt so bad I need some pain killers, an icy-cold patch and a red bull. Being a strong willed person, I said it was all right and waited for my first run. Another 10 min pass and I was second one in line to go and all of a sudden I black out and fall to the ground(due to the pain and swelling). Next thing I know, I wake up in a hospital room with a IV stuck in my right arm and a pulse meter in my left finger and my mom and dad sitting right next to me. I had been in the hospital for 8 hours and had been plastered and wrapped up. I was all dazed from the medication and didn't what what was going on. The next day, when I could actually understand whats going on, the doctor asked me what I was doing to cause such a horrible injury, and I told him I was skateboarding. He paused and said if I would not have gone to the hospital that day my leg would have been permanently stuck in an awkward position. The reason~that last trick I did that day had fractured my ankle in 3 places, caused severe bleeding and swelling internally (hemorrhaging) thus causing infection and puss build up to disable my foot. I felt so stupid and unsatisfied with myself that once I got better, I would try to skateboard again, but at least know my limits. Every time I skate with my buddies downtown at the well known stair sets, I can't help but imagining my self cause that very same injury a second time. So technically I "grew"~"shrunk"~ and then "grew again" Quite the shock of reality.
Pd 1
First, I will begin with a time that I have shrunk, because I have many moments to choose from. Honestly, I probable have at least a couple everyday. The most recent one that I can remember is when I was told by one of my friends that there were yearbooks finally arrived and they were being held in our schools performing art center. I was running late that morning, like usual, so I couldn’t get my yearbook and I really wanted it! So, I politely asked Mr. C if I could go get my yearbook before class began; he said yes. As I made my way to the PAC (performing art center), I noticed that all the lights were off and it was empty. So, I walked back to the classroom, empty handed. I looked ridiculous. I then found out that the yearbooks were actually located in a hallway by the PAC.
Now, I’ll mention a time I once grew. Every summer my family and I attend a Crownline Party in Okoboji, Iowa. The party is for owners of Crownline boats. It’s held at Parks Marina in Okoboji. There’s food, boating, and a poker run. For the poker run you visit different businesses along the coast of the lake and receive a stamp to prove you visited that establishment. After you retrieve all the stamps you turn back to Parks Marina and wait in line for a chance to win money by playing poker. Depending on how many stamps you get, the more hands of poker you are able to play. That year we only had one chance and my dad let me split the deck. It ended up being a full house! We won third place overall and received five hundred dollars in cash. I felt really proud of myself for winning that money for my parents. The money paid for our vacation and gave us all a little extra spend money for shopping! =]
Josh Mulder
Pd1
I remember how I instantly felt as if I grew up larger than life. This was two summers ago. I work as a lifeguard at the Brandon pool during the summer. I returned back to the pool for my second summer. My first summer I didn’t have a rescue even though there were many others that other lifeguards had gotten. It was about mid way through the summer and we had just heard thunder in the sky. As we were closing the pool all the lifeguards were happy. I happened to look to my right and I saw a little boy who jumped in were he couldn’t touch and his older brother wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. I saw the young boy quick blew my three whistles (what we do when we jump in for a rescue) and jumped in as fast as I could. I grabbed the little boy and lifted him out of the water. As we were closing I had many parents tell me good job. I just responded with “it’s my job and I love helping people.” After the end of all this I felt like I was on top of the world because I saved a little boy who potentially could have died. Even though this was what I was there for I couldn’t help but to think that I was the best. Maybe since it was just my first rescue I thought this way. In my resent rescues I haven’t felt this way as much but still slightly, I’m sure as time goes on and I get more and more rescues I will feel less and less this way.
Pd. 1
A time that I "grew" was last year out pheasant hunting with my family. My family has a tradition on the morning of thanksgiving all of the men go out hunting. Last year the morning started of slow by seeing only a few pheasants get up early and fly out the end of the field. the next pass I went up a head of our group to block and hopefully hold some of the birds in. they start walking towards me and about have way through as they hit a slu of cat-tails two giant rosters get up out of their range fly away from them and right at me. I get down trying to conceal myself as much as the cover would allow. The huge roosters getting exponentially larger with each second they close on my position. My entire family is watching this unfold from 75 yards, each one of them knowing that this is my shot and no one else’s, every eye watched. This thought ran through my head just before I rose and got a bead on the closest one. He was 25 yards out angling slightly to my left. A quick calculation of how much lead I’ll need and a swift pull of the trigger sent him falling from the sky. One down one to go kept running through my head. By this time the pheasant had seen me and was trying to avoid me by flying even more to my left. He was about 30 yards and flying perpendicular to where I was standing when another trigger pull educed a roar of cheer and praise from my family as the last bird fell.
This was a moment in my life, along with many others, that I grew. Whenever family or friends see you achevieing something difficult, makes anyone feel big.
I shrunk instantly when I first switched over to Brandon Valley. I didn’t know anyone, save for a couple of people who graduated last year or the year before. I felt out of place, and people wouldn’t talk to me because I was “the new girl”. After awhile, some people started to realize that I wasn’t a diseased freak and befriended me, and this year it’s even better than it was last year. I miss my friends at Washington, a lot. But I have new friends, so yeah. After people started to talk to me more and hanging out with me more, I started to grow a little bit and feel a little bit more confident than I did before hand. I know this isn’t three hundred words, but I honestly don’t know what else to say. I had friends at Washington. I moved to Brandon. I didn’t have friends at Brandon. Now I have friends at Brandon. Hoorah.
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