Personal Narrative: Mcdowell Early College

It was straight up the side of a mountain with no end in sight. As I stared up I thought, this is not so bad, but little did I know that the next two miles would be a testament to mind over body. The climb up the mountain began with a forty pound sandbag carry. You had to pull yourself up the hill using roots and small trees. By the time the real climb had started my legs were already cramping. The sun had come out from behind the clouds and I was slowly roasting in the August heat; my mouth was dry as a dessert. I then decided it was time for a snack. I took out the fowl runner gel known as Gu, but when the warm sticky gel hit my stomach it came right back up. As I was taking a short break on the side of the trail I witness my first full blown meltdown. The woman next to me dropped to the ground crying and told her husband “I am not okay”. He simply replied “look at all these people, none of them are okay” and started carrying her. The further up the mountain I went the more people you saw quitting in defeat. I had never seen so many men …show more content…
MEC allows students to graduate high school with their diploma and an associate degree in four or five years. However, I knew from very early on that I wanted to graduate in three years. Then continue on to a four year university with an ROTC program. The only problem with my plan was that my mom didn’t believe that I was ready for the mental or physical demands of an ROTC program, but we came to an agreement: If I could complete a Spartan Super, an approximate ten mile OCR race, then I would be able to graduate this year. I was able to complete the race, but it was the hardest thing I had ever done. The steep two mile climb up the side of the mountain had to be the worst part. Unlike everyone else I couldn’t just quit. For me, their was more at stake than just a medal and finisher's tee shirt. This was my chance to prove I was ready to go to