Narrative Paragraph

The best time of the year

Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling―Edna Ferber

    Joy, at one point in the year, there is a time which feels like it has is far more joy than any other. It is a whole month that I love, but the actual day(s) are the best time of the year for me. This time is Christmas and Christmas Eve. These are close to my two favorite days of the entire year, mostly because of the festivities and traditions of Christmas. For me, the Christmas season starts at the end of Thanksgiving, but Christmas Eve is when it is at the height of it’s game. On Christmas Eve, it starts to feel like Christmas during church. It might just be because I’m always eager to get home to watch “the Grinch” and get a gift from Secret Santa, but I just start to get that warm feeling inside during church and it really begins to feel like Christmas. After church, I unwind a little and start to speculate what I could get from Secret Santa and get ready to watch “the Grinch.” Once those festivities are done, I get ready to go to bed, but it never really goes to smoothly. I can never go to sleep right away, and even though it doesn’t sound like the biggest deal in the world, once you start trying to go to sleep the dead opposite usually occurs. At some point, I do manage to fall asleep, and then I get to wake up to a world of joy. Which then becomes some brief annoyance because I have to go wake everyone else up by running into everyone else’s room and jumping on their beds, yelling at them, and poking them to get out of bed so we can open up gifts. When it comes to Christmas, there isn’t any other time of the year that brings more joy to me. All of the Christmas carols on the radio, all of the lights on people’s houses, and—of course—having a tree in the middle of your home; all of this tradition leads to me feeling like everyone is having a great time, and that becomes contagious. Christmas is overall my favorite holiday because it brings my family together and I just feel happier during this time of the year. Joy, in total, is something that cannot be forced onto someone, but can be influenced.

Credit to Image: Christmas Image

The Tell Tale Heart

A literary reflection

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do
― Voltaire

    Guilt can always get into someone’s head, which can drive someone madness. In the short story-The Tell Tale Heart- by Edgar Alan Poe, guilt is something that portrayed in later parts of the story. While reading the last part of the flash fiction, I started to get a headache as a result of how the writing was presented in a way that made you feel mad. In this quick story, Edgar Alan Poe made me feel the stress and pain of doing something as bad as murdering someone. He made me feel like my mind was being wrenched apart through the protagonist’s point of view. I did feel bad for the old man though—he didn’t do anything to deserve being killed—he just had a weird eye. This is what Edgar Alan Poe was trying to do with this flash fiction; he tried to make us become attached to the old man through the eyes of his killer and then feel the guilt and path to insanity that the killer had gone through.

Tough Times

The difficulty of having an uncertain future

Tough Times never last, but tough people do-Robert H. Schuller

Text to Podcast:

   Pain is something hard to get over; pain and time wasted is a mental test that one cannot fail. I experienced this, and I’ll be the first to tell you it is something you will remember for a long time to come. Along with the pain and the time you just have to sit, you also have to think about the things you could be doing like playing sports or having fun on the beach. For me it was about football and how I didn’t even know if I could play or not. That summer I felt that I was in the best shape of my life, but then life threw a big curveball at me. 

     I was in Hyannis, and after being in the car for an hour and a half I was ready to have some fun on the beach and go swim around. The rest of that day didn’t pan out the way I thought it would (to say the least). 

       Do you know how if something bad is about to happen it feels like it’s moving in slow motion? That is exactly how this moment felt. I was riding along the shallow water on a skim board when it suddenly shot out from under me, and I began to fall backwards. This is when I knew what was about to happen. In my mind, it was like a shot from a movie where I was just slowly falling; kinda like the peace before the storm type of scenario. As soon as I heard the snap in my leg was as soon as I felt it. After that everything went as quick as the Roadrunner from Loony Toons. The next thing I knew, is that I was stuck in my basement with a 15 pound cast on my leg and I was just there thinking that if I had just moved my leg a little bit I would’ve been fine. I also just thought about what I could be doing if it hadn’t happened; I could’ve been having one of the best summers of my life, but no. I was left to wonder what could’ve been, and if I had a chance to play my new favorite sport—football.  The main reason why I wondered if I could play this season is actually because my doctor said he would be more comfortable with me being out for the rest of the season. I took that and said in my head “I’m not letting that happen,” but I had to be a little patient and just wait until I was ready to start “rebuilding” my leg. Eventually I made back, and in my first game returning, on my second play I took a quick toss to the right for around a 25 yard touchdown. Close to the end of the second quarter I had about a 50-60 yard run that was called back for holding. I still count that yardage in my head though because that would been my first 100 yard game. After the game ended, I felt like I was out of my rut and back to the athlete and person I was before my injury. This shows that if your in a tough time the longer you are in is the closer you are to getting out of it. Having tough times in life is not something anyone wants to go through, but is something everyone needs to get through life.