The Game

The Music started and we stormed out of the locker room like bats out of hell. Yelling, clapping, and running we got warmed up and ready for the biggest game of our lives. In line drills, everybody was working as hard as possible; we jumped extra high for rebounds and shot extraordinarily. Part of the warm up itself is to show the other team on the other side of the court that we were not there to mess around. High fives and chest bumps were being exchanged all over the court. The intensity level was through the roof. We were so excited that most of us felt nearly invincible.

            It was time for the tip; everyone in the room came into a great silence. The Ball was tossed up and between the two teams it was hard to tell who wanted the win more. The First half was brutal. It seemed every time there was a possession somebody went to the line. This was a sure sign that the game would come out to be a hard fought battle. At the end of the first half, I received a pass and I knew this was my time to shine. I reverted back to the mechanics and took the shot. It seemed like an eternity while the ball flew through the air towards the basket. The ball finally made it and went right in. The other coach called a time out in fury realizing that we had just went on an unanswered streak.

            After halftime we came out again with the same passion. We were down by two and realized that this was the last chance we had to prove ourselves as a basketball team. We came out firing; every shot seemed to fall. We played our hearts out with all the passion our bodies could handle. The other team also fought ruthlessly. They came back within three points with a minuet to go. Both coaches screamed for calls to go in their favor and the boys on the court including myself fought our hardest for the win. With 3.9 seconds to go in the game we were up by 3 points and a colleague of mine was on the free-throw line. He missed the first but a line violation was called and he was rewarded two more shots. He missed one and sunk the next to guarantee our victory and a 12-5 season.

                                                                  AC/DC concert

            The warm up band was playing so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. I was amazed that noise like that could come from a few speakers on stage. The five thousand people screaming around me didn’t help the amplitude one bit. This band was terrible, it had me skeptical if every band was this bad live.

Finally they stopped the obnoxious band and it was time to see AC/DC. I had never been to a concert and it was my dream to see them play since I was a small child. Then it started, the lights dimmed and a giant screen lit up with an introduction video. This was incredible to see and hear the crazy fans. Out of the silence of the stage came a screaming guitar solo. Angus Young, my hero was playing only a couple hundred feet away and was shredding harder than I have ever heard. I was going crazy, my AC/DC t-shirt I had just purchased was on top of what I had originally worn to the concert and its significance to me raised even more upon the band all being spot lighted on the stage. For hours Brian Johnson screamed beautiful musical notes into the microphone, which melted the ears of each member of the audience. The excitement of a person’s first concert cannot be beaten and I was filled with joy for the entirety of the concert. After a memorable playing of thunderstruck, it was over.

It is such a sad moment when the band says goodnight and everybody screams. I stood up to leave and I heard a guitar start to play. Was this the band coming out to play again? I couldn’t fathom the idea because they just said goodbye. I was more than wrong, there on top of the stage was again my hero Angus Young, he was playing yet another legendary solo that lasted about twenty minuets. There wasn’t a different way I would want my first concert to end.

                                                                    Llama Love

            Mid July in sunny Ohio is a beautiful time of the year. The weather is warm and comforting and all one wants to do is go explore the countryside. This is where my adventure started. As a 6-year-old boy I was eager to try new things and I had a special interest in animals. For weeks, I had begged my babysitter to take me to a farm. Finally after great anticipation she told my 4-year-old sister and I that we were going to her friend’s farm. I remember the excitement that set into the room. It was nearly unbearable; we were going to the farm of our dreams the next morning.

            Six am rolled around and I woke up in a rampage. That was the day I have been waiting for. I begged my babysitter to leave early I could hardly stand the suspense. Finally she got into the car and we were off to see the coolest farm on the planet. We arrived with high anticipation. It was everything I thought it could be. The huge farm was on too many acres to count and I was in awe at the length of the driveway. We pulled up to a huge barn and I jumped out of the car. First thing I saw was a peacock, this was the first one I had ever seen and its colors and size fascinated me. We walked straight into the barn and my babysitter introduced us to her friends. While the introduction was happening I was not interested in it at all because there were massive horses lined up all around me. It was a dream to see something this amazing. I petted every single horse in the barn, which took a long amount of time but I felt it necessary. Next we went out of the large barn doors and into the abundance of farm animals. There were everything one could imagine; cows, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, donkeys and many others were cooped up in pens around me. I got to meet as many animals as I could and I wanted to keep each one of them. For the first time in my life I was actually a farmer like I wanted to be so dearly. my cowboy boots and hat topped it off nicely. There was no other place in the world I would have wanted to be.

            After a long day of exploring with the animals my babysitter decided it was time to go. I was amazed that anyone would want to leave a place like this because it was so special. I cried for an extended amount of time because I felt I wanted to stay forever. To comfort me the owner of the farm said I could meet the most special animal on the farm before I left. This excited me immensely. There it was, a llama, this animal was mysterious to me and it amazed me with its long neck and funny head. I wanted to pet it more than anything. The owners said go ahead and be careful because he is still adolescent. I ran over too it as fast as I could. It was a nice llama that was incredibly soft and white. I said my goodbyes to the llama and started to walk away.

            That’s were things went wrong. I felt a tremendous weight land on me and force me to the ground. I was pounded into the soil multiple times and all my little brain thought was that I was dying. Was this the end of me? Smashed by some instinctual stricken llama trying to make love to me? I thought it was over. Finally released by my babysitter and her friend I ran to the car screaming hysterically and needless to say the best day of my life turned into the most haunting one very fast. To this day llamas intimidate me more than anything and that very species caused me to grow a dislike for farm animals all together.