A new beginning

August 29 2009, I woke up at 7:30 on a Thursday morning. I ate a banana and grabbed a juice, told my brothers bye and got in the truck. My mom was supposed to drive me to school so that I could move in by 9 but she kept making several stops at the most random places. I kept getting frustrated because I was ready to move in.  She finally realized we were running a little behind schedule and headed for UMBC.

We arrived on campus around 9:45 and it felt like I was a day late. I checked in and got my key and all the paper work filled out and was closer to being at school for good. I saw all these faces that I had never seen before and I was enjoying it. There were beautiful girls all around and I couldn’t help but smile and say “Hey.” 

As I unpacked the truck I tried to look as handsome as possible. I was trying to make a good impression. My mom saw me and shook her head and said, “Don’t forget why you are really here!”  

When I took everything to my room the thought of me not having my parents around really set in, I started to get a little emotional. I put all of my clothes away and my mom sat on my new bed and watched, and told jokes about how home was going to be now without me there. 

When I finished unpacking, I took all the boxes back to my mom’s truck. We stood there looking at each other both at a loss of words. She grabbed me and said, ”be good, ima miss you and I love you.” She got in the truck and left and as I walked to my new home tears were running down my face. As this was happening I was hoping to be invisible but that wouldn’t be the case because the prettiest girl I saw that day stopped me and said, “are you ok?” I lied and said yes and went on to my room.

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Higher Learning

My best learning experience took place my last day of school my senior year of high school. I didn’t take the final in my pre-calc class because I was just going to avoid it until my teacher told me to come take it. He asked me why I was trying to get out of it and I told him because I don’t understand it. He told me I was a great student and all I had to do was ask for help. He said, “When you are a good student and try teachers have more desire to help you out.” He sat me down and explained to me that I should never be afraid to ask because the more I ask the more I will learn and the more ill learn.

                My worst learning experience took place my freshman year of college. I was sheltered growing up and when I got to school I felt like I could do whatever I wanted no one was here to tell me no. I didn’t go to class, didn’t study, everything fell apart. I loss some of my scholarship money and was forced to pay for what it would take to go back to school this semester.  It was the worst way to learn that college isn’t a playground and I’m here for my education.


200 words

the perfect form

Running over a hurdle is an aggressive opened stride that most people confuse with jumping. My coach would constantly tell me when your fast you run over hurdles when your regular you are jumping them. I was taught to lift my lead knee, attack the hurdle, and follow through with my trail leg as soon as my front leg comes up. Also, it was branded into my brain to move my arms aggressive and don’t stop any movement. You run with your arms, so if they pause you pause. I never abandoned the perfect recipe to this day.

                My coach told me to remember three words commitment, courage, and concentration. These three words helped guide me through track and my life. No matter what I set my mind to with hard work and determination I can get to any point I desire.   

                When track started my senior year of high school I never had worked so hard for something until then. My goal was to win the state championships in the hurdle events. For the entire season I went to practice at school that lasted two and a half hours and then went to another practice three times out the week to hurdle for another  two hours. My life revolved around running because I didn’t want my parents to pay for me to attend college. I knew with hard work and dedication I would accomplish my goal.         

                As the season progressed my times began to decrease at every meet and the margin of victory did as well. I wasn’t beat all year and had one of the top times in the country. All I could do was smile because I knew my work paid off. I won states and also earned a scholarship. The best feeling was doing all of this in front of all my peers and being an example of what goals and hard work can do.

The give me generation

                My father constantly told my brothers and I that we are the me generation. We use to do simple things like not pick up a small piece of paper on the floor or not clean our bathroom on a Sunday. We didn’t really believe what he said, but after being away from school and seeing other people in my generation go about their lives, he was right. This generation is lazy and expects things to be given to them and they do things for themselves and don’t help others. For example, my coach believes in making his athletes earn their UMBC practice gear. Some athletes on the team expect to just be given gear just because they made the team they don’t know what hard work means.   120 words

Walking Across History

When I was younger I lived in a neighborhood in Southern Maryland called South Hampton. It’s about 15 miles from DC and a walking distance to the Potomac River. At night we could see the lights in Northern Virginia. Since the neighborhood lies so close to these two points, one would expect for the land to hold some type of history.

                My brothers and I use to play in the woods for hours and always find things and think, why is this here. We found multiple paths that had deep groves as if there was a lot of traffic going towards the river and also a lot of old large piles of dirt randomly in the woods near the river. We would find old tools like hammers wheels to wagons and markings on trees.  Then one day we found an old house that was basically flattened and as we walked we found a grave yard that was roped off by a metal chain fence. We typed the names into the computer and found out that the land was once owned by a slave owner and was later used to transport materials from DC and Virginia to each other. The paths we found were logging trails and the reason for all the dirt piles were due to broken down piles of wood..

                Places like this should be sacred to a town and not hidden in the woods.  They are pieces of history that should be saved and cherished. People walk amongst history daily and don’t even realize it. The land we walk on everyday holds so much history and we don’t even know it. These places matter.     254 words

walking across history

When I was younger I lived in a neighborhood in Southern Maryland called South Hampton. It’s about 15 miles from DC and a walking distance to the Potomac River. At night we could see the lights in Northern Virginia. Seeing as though the neighborhood was so close to these too points, a thought should come up that the land had some type of history to it.

We use to play in the woods a lot and notice a lot of awkward things in the woods and just feel uncomfortable. We found multiple paths that had deep groves as if there was a lot of traffic going towards the river and also a lot of old large piles of dirt randomly in the woods near the river. We would find old tools like hammers wheels to wagons and markings on trees.  Then one day we found a old house that was basically flattened and as we walked we found a grave yard that was roped off by a metal chain fence. Later we found out that the land was once owned by a slave owner and was later used to transport materials from DC and Virginia to each other. So the paths we found were logging trails.

I feel places like this should be sacred to a town. It’s a piece of history that should be saved and cherished. This is just an example of how people walk amongst history daily and don’t even realize it.

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We wear what they wear

When you go to the store to buy a pair of shoes, or a new outfit, where did you get the idea to get what you want to buy? Everyone gets their fashion from the same place. There’s a reason why we all walk around dressing similar.

            It’s Hollywood, who gives us inspiration to dress a certain way. It’s been this way for a long time. When African American men and women wore bell bottom pants, extravagant colors and Afros it was because of the celebrities they enjoyed to watch. They wanted to be just like them. When times changed so did the style. When the celebrities changed their style, so did the regular populations style as well. When the Afros were played out people went to the jerry curl, and then transitioned to the Fade era. In the late 90’s early 2000’s Corn rows were in style and then they transitioned into Dread Locks. Even the clothes went from baggy and reassembled a jail house theme has now switched to more of a sophisticated prep look. This is all due to the change of style the faces of Hollywood have put us through. We as fans want to be like the celebrities we enjoy to watch. To many people life is like a popularity contest and everyone wants to be popular. Celebrities are the base of whats popular so we strive to look like them. If you don't look like them then you don't fit in. 

            It is believed that image makes us who we are. People use clothing to make them look a certain way to maintain a certain image. What you wear is what will kick-start the impression you make on others before you even open your mouth. This is the place from which people will filter everything you say and do. There is a language that is spoken through specific types of clothing. We wear certain clothes to portray a certain image. By having a certain style we are pretending to be something we aren’t so that we can fit in.









































350 words