College Prep English Paper

Here's the paper I was so excited to write. I didn't go the way I was originally going to go with it, but I survived my first paper at Jefferson! You were supposed to write a story about sometime in your life that you learned lesson and find a cliche that summarized your story. Here it is...



What Doesn’t Kill You Will Make You Stronger

Have you ever heard someone say “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger?” I’ve heard that saying many times in my life but the time it sunk in, was my track season two years ago.
It was spring of my freshman year and track season was upon us. Everyone at school was discussing the upcoming season and counting down the days until the first practice. Myself, however, I was already counting down the days until the season was over. You see, I hate to run! People that know me know how much I hate to run, but people that don’t sometimes are surprised. They seem to think that being a good athlete means that you love to run. That’s definitely not the case for me.
When practice started, it became apparent that I was not a very good runner. By the first track meet I knew my coach would stick me in something we weren’t very strong in so I wouldn’t screw it up. Unfortunately for me, that was the four by eight hundred relay. Anyone in track knows the eight hundred isn’t a very easy race. But if you aren’t in track, I’ll explain the relay to you. In the four by eight hundred, each of the four members of the relay has to run an eight hundred. An eight hundred is two times around the track. So for me, the girl who hated running and who wasn’t very good, that wasn’t good news.
After running if for the first time, it was clear that the eight hundred and I weren’t going to get along. I was part of this relay all year no matter how much I begged to get out of it. Lying on the ground at the coldest meet of the season I promised myself that I would never, ever run this race ever again in the rest of my track career.
The next year, I was assured by my coach that I would never again have to run an eight hundred if I didn’t want to. The team practiced for the first couple weeks and when the first track meet came along, sure enough, he didn’t call my name to run in the four by eight hundred. I was so happy! I had been running better times and had improved a lot from the last year. Track was almost fun, almost…
I thought I was home-free when in the middle of the season one of the four by eight hundred runners got sick and was out of school for a week. When another runner got sick, my coach showed up in one of my classes and asked to speak with me. “Oh no,” I thought. He asked if I was willing to run just one four by eight hundred for the team because half the relay members were sick. Somehow, before I even thought it through, a “yes” came out of my mouth. I was going to die!
On the day of the meet I was nervous and regretting agreeing to run the race. As I took my spot in the line of other runners and looked back to see my teammate who was moments from handing me the baton I thought, “What am I doing?”
After the race, I went up to get my time from my coach. To my surprise, I had run a solid time! In fact, it was the best of my short track career! After running that time, whether I liked it or not, I was again part of the four by eight hundred relay team.
The season came to an end and contrary to what I thought, I did survive. Because of that one time I filled in for someone, I unfortunately became a permanent member of the four by eight hundred relay team.
By this experience I have learned that even though you may not like something of even hate it, it can help you. So when I was faced with the decision to participate in two months of intense basketball workouts with Jake Sullivan I looked back at my track experience. Using that experience I decided that even though it may be difficult, it would make me a better, stronger player in the end. I have continued to participate in the program and I don’t regret my decision.
From now on, when faced with a challenge, I remember that track season. Even when I thought I wasn’t going to make it, I did and I became stronger for it. So from now on, I’ll remember my favorite cliché, “What doesn’t kill me will make me stronger