Personal Narrative-Outward Bound

When you parents tell you not to do something do you just do it anyways. Well I do and this time I think I learnt my lesson. It all started on a normal Saturday and we were gonna go on a hike, but none of us wanted to go somewhere so we just did it at home. We got our bags and water ready and busted for the trail. I thought it was gonna be a normal day and we would all have fun, but I got proved wrong. The trail itself is about three miles and a couple of extra steps,but with the surprise we only walked a mile of it.

I’ve always wondered what the outside world was like. As a cooter turtle, I’ve been living inside the same old glass walls filled with unnatural water. It felt like prison. No matter how much I swam, I would see the exact same things over and over again- small rocks, plants, and two other strange objects that I couldn’t identify. My turtle mate, River, had guessed that one of the strange objects were probably a human object used to keep the water “clean”. I found that kind of strange since the water was never clean anyway. River was a Red-Eared slider and was a few inches smaller than me. Or at least I thought he was. I’ve always thought of him as a scaredy fish because he always ran away from everything. Whenever the Twoleg came towards us, he would dash away like as if he saw a ghost, and whenever I asked him why he was so afraid, he would refuse to answer.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

A bitter breeze makes its way down the lake until it reaches the shoreline. As I am looking towards Ruby Island I feel an algid whip hit my face, sending shivers through my spine. An astonishment of nippy air gives me goose bumps causing my arm hairs to stick up like soldiers ready to scuffle away the bitterness. I saunter towards the end of the wharf , clinching my fists tightly in my pockets to keep the coolness of the air from touching my fingers. With every step I take, I can feel my feet sliding beneath me from the metal wiring that covers the hard wooden surface.Being very cautious trying not slip into the ferocious wavy water I take a peek at what is beneath. The waves no longer look inviting like were six months ago. Instead, they look sharp and snappy enough to freeze a soul. As I am scanning the rugged surface of the lake, something catches my eye.

I took a deep breath as I walked through the doorway. The door was stuck open, hanging on just one of its hinges. It was clear that no one had been near this place in a long time. As I entered, a stench hit me. It smelt sickly sweet, almost like rotten fairy floss. I looked around the room at the faded and ripped wallpaper, and the broken furniture. The air was so thick with dust it was almost impossible to breathe, and everything was thickly covered with dust. The little light there was came from the cracks in the yellowed blinds.

Around two or three years ago my family and I had to move houses. Moving was sudden and we didn't know it was going to happen. This made moving out and into the other house a lot harder. Since we were moving so fast somethings we just decided to leave behind with the person that was still living there. We got most things with us but one thing that we did leave back in the old place was our living room tv. Since we had just moved and my family isn't rich my mom said we couldn't go get a new one for some time. This sucked because I used the tv a lot for watching show, movies, and playing games just like the rest of my family did. Having a tv wasn't something we needed at all but it was always something to do when you were bored and there was no other things to do. Another big thing was my grandma had just gotten us a new playstation 3 and now we weren't able to used it at all because there was no television. Not having a tv was bummer for me and I thought it was a huge problem when it really wasn’t.

When I got fired from my job over the summer I realized there wasn't a lot to do. I was bored. This led to me exploring the woods around my house.I found lots of things, old oil cans, empty budweisers, and coyote traps, but the biggest thing I found was a trailer.

"You can't keep holding on to stuff like this, James." Natasha sighed, slipping a delicate hand through her hair. "It's not healthy."

Moving, for many people, can be a difficult process. A lot of the time kids have to switch schools and deal with the challenge of making new friends and getting used to everything new. Since my parents divorced when I was five years old, I can remember living in many different homes. My mother would rent out a place, live there for a few months, then meet a new guy and move on. For years, I hoped to myself that my mom and dad would get back together, like Nick and Elizabeth Parker from “The Parent Trap.” I knew, however, deep down that such a thing just couldn’t happen. My four siblings and I were dragged along, forced to go with the flow and adapt as quickly as possible. Up till she married her second husband, Tony. As young as I was,

It was a typical Sunday morning, I ate breakfast with my family and got ready for church. The morning went on with a drag, than 5 o’clock hit. Once 5 o’clock hit my mother started yelling at my sister and me to get our stuff packed and into the car. We had only a few hours before my final summer of upward bound started. Since I started my senior year I’d been remembering many moments of my past and been reflecting on them. Therefore as I began to pack, it didn’t seem strange to me as I started to flash back to what had gotten me into Upward Bound in the first place.

Prior to undergraduate and graduate school, the repercussions of academic misconduct were not a deterrent to me. The consequences of plagiarizing were not clear and concise in High School. I was a poor, intelligent kid living in an environment where fashion and economic class established one’s social status. I wanted to fit in. I was so obsessed with fitting in, that I used my academic gifts to promote academic misconduct. My peers had academic weakness. Theses weakness’ included, lack of confidence in their work, lack of preparation and lack of motivation. I exploited the areas of weakness of my peers for my personal gain.

2017 Women in Leadership Conference has opened my eyes and my heart to a wonderful world of opportunities. These successful and inspirational speakers; Dr. Wendy Murphy and Bentina Terry, along with the list of phenomenal of panelist really stood out with ear piercing words like be myself and be confident in what I know. Having mentors would be one key to my success that I learned and can begin today. Mentors provide support, motivation, understanding, and guidance. The one last thing to drive it home was Bentina Terry outstanding and unforgettable lecture. I will never forget her words of Boundless instead, of fearless, who’s going to stop me, and never jump if I don’t have wings. The needed learning tools given in this

I was being followed. A fact I became more and more aware of as I approached the center of the woods. I wasn’t completely committed to any idea of what it was, it’s trepid footsteps I could have easily mistaken for the occasional ambience, if not for their consistent shadowing of me. It could be anything from a fox, to a very graceful axe murderer.

Moving, although natural, is not easy to most people. How many things are involved when you have to leave your school and friends behind to go to a place totally unfamiliar where anything could go wrong? For me, more than I could count since my family decided to move four thousands miles away.

The swish of the basket marks another point for my team. We cheer, and I go to high five Lauren who's closest to me.