Garrett Lanagan

Fitz English

Windsor Mountain Essay

9/19/19

Windsor Mountain Essay 

The night we almost froze to death.

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”-Carol Burnett
Garrett Lanagan

     It was freezing, our bodies temperatures slowly lowering as the wind swept in a furious flurry of cold ice and freezing wind. We were under the covers of our separate bunk beds and felt like we were going to freeze. As the night turned into day all felt like we were in the Arctic with out a coat or snow gear. We felt like this was it and that we were done, finished. Our 8th grade class was broken but still together as one and had weathered the storm of cold. At Windsor mountain I discovered that I could conquer my fears and to never trust the weather.

      The second night at camp was a terrible disaster. There was a rumor around camp that it would get very, very, very, cold. The first night our cabin was kept up all night by a child that sniffled very loudly. The second night we were so cold that we stayed up for about 3 extra hours. I can deal with 30s in shorts and a t-shirt without needing anything else. But I was trying to go to sleep in this very cold night. The cold slowly came in our cabin (the door had a screen on it so the wind and cold wouldn’t keep out). The cold slowly but effectively swept in the room until the only thing you could feel was the cold nothingness of the rooms temperature. The night was very, very, long. It felt like it was below 20 degrees in the cabin. I somehow got to sleep by turning to the wall and covering myself with a blanket and a sleeping bag. In the morning it had gotten up to the 40s maybe but it was still freezing. Our cabin slowly awoke to what was 6:45am. Our cabin group had kp (kitchen party) that day and it was at 7:45am so we had to wait an hour when no one was up and no games. While freezing overnight was one issue, I wasn’t prepared for the day when I would be hoisted above the treetops. 

     When we had been assigned the high ropes corse I was terrified. It also made me feel worse when the helmets and harnesses didn’t fit on me. James was very nice and helpful and got me a harness that was used for automatic ropes corses and a helmet which he got from the back of the shed where all the gear came from. I’m not afraid of highest nor am i scared of rock climbing but I was not fully into climbing a very large tree and going on a rope that I might get stuck on. My friend Andrew went to the highest rope and right of the bat shuffled across this 80ft high rope and make it to the end. He made it opened the box at the end and found out there were rocks in the box. He came back across the rope and fell down. James was not done with Andrew yet though. He asked him 4 questions and he had to answer each question correctly to fall to the ground. I followed him after he was down and started the climb. The counselors told us that the highest one had the most friction so it would move the least. I climbed up the tree pushed myself so I would get on the rope at the top and started the shuffling across. I made it about 75% of the way across when I slipped... I fell backwards and was off the rope. I didn’t fall to the ground though I thought I might. I tried my hardest to get back to the position I had had before I fell but I couldn’t do it. I tried my hardest but had to come down. I learned that if you want to do something do it all the way. 

In life, sometimes you have to face your fears and conquer your demons. Whether that is heights or impending frostbite, one must punch back at life. I can apply this each and every day.  I can work harder in football practice. When I jam my finger on the offensive centers pads I will work through the pain. In life I will encounter challenges but I will call back to the times at Windsor Mountain when I went head on with my fear of being 80ft in the air attached to one rope. And my night when I had to edge away from freezing to death. 

Conditioning

Garrett Lanagan

“Do not whine... Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone.”

-Joan Didion

So far school is going well. I played the first game of football and am ready to play the second. Though I broke my finger during the first game and I got a lot of bruises on my arms. I have connected with old friends and have made new ones as well. Our grade went on a trip to Windsor mountain and we stayed there for 3 days 2 nights. The second night I believe our cabin got down to below freezing. In the football game I broke my finger late in the first quarter and played through the rest. I got triple teamed at the line which meant that all three of there offensive linemen blocked me at once. I didn’t get a tackle or a sack in the game but I got through every block that Fay put on me. In science we are working on metric conversion. In math we are working on algebra. I like all my teachers and have been catching up on all work and have been getting good grades. The first few days of football were tough because we worked on conditioning the whole time. I worked out in summer but I couldn’t account for the drills we were doing so my body wasn’t ready. On the 23rd of September we had a flag football practice and in football we had a round robin tournament and if you weren’t playing in the game you had to do conditioning. When my team did conditioning we had to hold a push-up position for an extended period of time. After this we ran over to the wall on the other side of the field and came back. We ran around a pole in the corner of the other side of the field and came back. We then did line jumps and tricep stretches of the benches and did that for a minute. By the time we got in for the second game I was exhausted. I gave what juice I had left and we ended up with a 2-0 record which was the highest out of all the 4 teams

What Is Fun

Winning Isn’t Everything, It’s The Only Thing

Vince Lombardi

Football is fun to me because you can hit people hard and when you score touchdowns you can celebrate with teammates. I hope I can play tight end and defensive end so I can score touchdowns and sack and hit the quarterback. I am  about football because we have to memorize a playbook with a lot of plays in it. I'm not good at memorizing stuff and we have a game on Friday. I am scared because I don't know if equipment that we have will fit me the end of the day.

Death

The Day The Night Killer Struck

“Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.”

Haruki Murakami

Once apron a dark rainy night a killer stocked the town of Danville. The killer had a stocky build at 6 feet 8 inches and around 207 pounds. He walked down to Salen road and upon the house of the baker family. 

John had just eaten his food and his mother was preparing desert. Randle asked his wife about the weather for the next week. Daniel sat in his chair with his bib picking at Cheerios. Though they all felt comfortable, the recent crime wave had scared them back into the primal ages. As Pip there dog looked out the window he kept barking at something. In the night and combined with the rain they couldn’t see more than 5 feet outside. 

The rain fell hard on his hat and cloak as he moved closer to the house. He could see glimpses of the family inside and felt sad that he couldn’t see his again. Just then a sudden rage came over him and he felt no remorse at the actions he was about to do. He was now at the door and could hear that inside the families dog ahead noticed him approaching. He had a long knife in his hand and a colt pistol in its holster in his other hand. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Mr. Randle saw a tall figure just outside the door. He slowly knocked on the door clunk, clunk, clunk. Mr. Randle then made a fatal mistake. He opened the door. The tall man grabbed his throat and threw him against the wall. He then shot him once.