Sophomore slump

Our junior year started and things were really tense between him and I, fighting the majority of the summer really took a toll on us. I actually started developing feelings for another guy while we were dating and I had never felt so awful. Picture day rolled around and I had reached my breaking point. We started arguing in the morning and continued over text and one thing led to another, I broke things off because I couldn’t do it anymore. Little did I know that was not the end of us. Unlike…

When I was a lot younger playing sports wasn’t always easy because of asthma. In the eighth grade, instead of playing basketball after football season, I decided to wrestle instead. One time in the seventh grade I went to the 2013 OKWA Novice State wrestling tournament. After several matches in the tournament I made it to the semi-finals. I won that match in double overtime. It might not seem like much, but I learned a valuable lesson. During that double overtime, I was so exhausted that I…

Having played softball for nine years, I have been through five coaches. I know what makes a good coach, and I know what doesn’t make a good coach. Your coach can be one of the most influential people in your life. You spend everyday after school and most weekends with your coach. Over the course of the season you form some sort of relationship with your coach. As a coach, it is their job to encourage you, support you, help you improve your skills, and push you to be a better athlete. When they…

I had gained a spot on varsity with my partner. We had lost a lot of our games at first. However, with the help of the upperclassmen and coaches, we gained our footing and won our first game. Throughout the game, I would hear their voices helping us along. “Move to the bird!” “Squat!”. I felt pride as we won more games. I was motivated to get better not only for the team, but for myself. Junior year was a year of stress and anxiety. With the graduation of the upperclassmen, it was up to me to…

While my academic record accurately represents me as a student, it shows the hard-truth about my struggles as well. Although my freshman year grades were excellent for many, I was not quite satisfied with my results that year. Throughout elementary and middle school, I got by with stellar grades without putting forth much effort. That is why Freshman year was a wake-up call for me. I could not just sit through school without putting forth effort and see results, which I was not aware of and thus…

I have experienced both exceptional and terrible teams. The most profound group/team example I have experienced was during boot camp. To provide background and context, here was the situation. Members of my platoon were all transferred from our first assigned platoon to an overflow platoon, created to decrease overall group size. Amusingly, because everyone was selected alphabetically, the last name closest to the beginning of the alphabet started with R. Because this happened after the first…

air sucked out of the gym as it sailed out of bounds. I was embarrassed and devastated that I had let my team down. I played the perfect game up until that moment, but because I missed the serve, I performed poorly in everyone's eyes. I was only a sophomore, but the senior players’ opportunity to play in the state tournament was gone. Consequently, my team was…

I walked into that gym on the first day of practice after 10 years of soccer. I was nervous and didn’t know anyone. This was all brand new to me. I thought I was always going to stick with soccer. Cheerleading was something I never thought I would be interested in but decided to give it a try. It ended up being one of the best decisions I have made with my life. Competitive cheerleading was fun as a sport but also kind of awkward for me that first year. I did a prep team the first year to…

I’m Onatah Rude and I am a freshman at Alpena High School. I try to set a lot of goals for myself but i struggle achieving them when it comes to school. My past grades are pretty shameful i used to do alright in school but when i got to middle school things kinda went downhill and ended up getting poor grades. So this year i’m going to try getting out of that hole I got myself into. I am extremely grateful for my friends and family, they have really helped through the good and bad phases of my…

Marching band has been the most enriching activity that I have ever been a part of. When I first came to high school I was scared, marching band allowed me to make friends and have a wonderful freshmen year experience. I was new to a school as a sophomore because my family moved across the country, marching band was able to make me feel at home in this new place and allowed me to adjust more quickly. As I grew older I received leadership positions in the band, junior year being a Uniform…