High Jump

“It’s all about the up; it’s all about the up.” The phrase I had heard so many times before echoed in my head once again.


“Koessler in the hole,” the official announced. I got up, really in the zone now. As I took off my sweats, the icy breeze stung my bare legs.

*Clang* I heard the bar hit the ground. “Yes!” I thought. Now I just had to jump one other girl and I had the win.

“Murphy up; Koessler on deck.” My last competitor was about to jump. I was only focused on myself, however. I couldn’t even watch her. I was turned away from the high jump pit, stretching on the ground. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I heard Mary Murphy start her approach towards the bar. But then: nothing.

“Oh no,” I thought, “She made it over.” I turned to check on my suspicion, but my opponent was walking back to her mark. She hadn’t even jumped yet. She approached again. But she didn’t jump. I knew exactly what she was thinking. I do the same thing when I approach higher heights. I just psych myself out when I know I am going for a height I haven’t cleared before. As much as I try to tell myself I can do it, as I am sprinting my fastest around the “J” curve towards the bar, my mind tells me I can’t do it. I knew she was doing the same thing.

I, however, was not gaining anything from her delay. Freezing cold and slight rain are not the best conditions to jump in, especially at the CYO Championship Meet. I had so much riding on this one meet. Everyone was expecting me to win and I going for a personal record.

Mary approached the bar again, and again turned away. She looked to her coach for help. He gave her a quick pep talk, she only had two minutes to complete her jump or she would automatically forfeit. She went to her mark, ran, and jumped, rather pitifully, not getting anywhere close to clearing it. I was so happy inside I could barely contain myself. But I knew I had to stay focused. I still had a record to chase.

I was nervous as I stepped up to my mark. This was my third attempt at 4’11”, a height I usually easily clear. I ran, jumped my hardest, driving my knee and throwing my arm up. I arched, piked, and landed on the mat. I cleared it. Everyone watching started cheering, but I still wasn’t done. Now I got to choose by how much the bar moved up.

“Five feet,” I announced. They moved the bar up. This was my personal record – on a good day with nice weather. I decided I just needed to go for it as hard as I possibly could. At this point, there were not many other events going on. Many people were crowded around the high jump, not making it any easier. I knew many people were cheering for me, and my coaches must have been yelling instructions at me, but I tuned everything out. I had to focus. I jumped and made it over. It felt effortless, and I was ready to go for a new height.

As they moved the bar up, I was trying to stretch and stay warm. Now it was time to focus. I couldn’t psych myself out. Not now. I stepped up to my mark. The whole area became silent. I started running. Counting steps. Turned the corner. Three more steps. Plant left foot. Drive right knee. Throw my body in the air. Arch. Head back. Pike. Hit the mat. I immediately jumped up, full of adrenalin. The silence was broken by the sudden outburst of cheering. I got my personal record, won the championship, but most importantly, fulfilled my own goal.

Olympics

I love watching the Olympics. I wish they were on more often. Starting from the Opening Ceremony every two years, it seems like the excitement never stops. Personally, I like the Summer Olympics better than the Winter Olympics. My favorite events to watch are the gymnastics, swimming, and especially the track and field. Being a high jumper and runner, I am fascinated by these athletes, and strive to be like them. I had the privilege of watching history be made at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008. With Michael Phelps winning a record eight gold medals in one year, and both the opening and closing ceremonies being the biggest ever, it was truly a privilege to witness. Beijing was really the first Olympics I actually paid attention to. Before that I may have watched them, but I never really cared or followed the results.

I have been following the Vancouver Olympics even more carefully. There are many really cool websites that keep track of things like the medal count. I really enjoy following that, along with some individual events. My favorite winter sports are pair’s figure skating, snowboard half pipe, and short-track speed skating. I’m not quite sure which one I like the most. I like figure skating because I think I could probably do most of the tricks they do, however I can’t get how they are able to do anything on the ice. I have no skating coordination whatsoever. I like pairs the best because they can do so many more things with two people like throws and lifts. The half pipe is really just amazing to me. I have never tried to snowboard, but I’m pretty sure it would be a disaster. Then they combine that with all the flips, twists, and grabs, I truly find it unfathomable. I really enjoy short track because it is one of the only events in the winter games that isn't against judged or racing the clock. By the final round, all the competitors are racing right next to each other, at the same time.

The excitement always keeps you on the edge of your seat. For example, in the finals of the men’s 1500 meters, it seemed as if the podium was out of reach for the Americans. However, at the last second, the Koreans in the second and third spots collided and fell. Korea took gold, and the U.S. took both silver and bronze. It is the excitement that draws me to watch this sport. Overall, the Olympics are a really great event and I am already looking forward to the 2012 London Summer Games.

Big Fish

“Ouch!” I screamed as I hit the ground. All I could think about was my throbbing ankle. Everyone in the gym came running over to me, they were all laughing, including Mrs. Blackmer. I couldn’t figure out what was so funny. Apparently Natalie couldn’t either. She was standing over me, a shocked look on her tan face. I saw a hand reach out to me, as if to help me up, but there was no way I was going to stand right now.


“What just happened?” Natalie asked.

“I don’t know…my ankle…” I responded.

“Come on, get up,” Mrs. Blackmer said.

“I can’t,” I said still confused and in an extreme amount of pain.

“That was the loudest snap I have ever heard,” Natalie exclaimed. “Did anyone else hear that?”

“That was your ankle?” Mrs. Blackmer said in disbelief. She went running for an ice pack as she told a few other girls to carry me to the bench. She instructed me to take my shoes off. Her background as an athletic trainer allowed my gym teacher to assess my injury. My right ankle was already swollen; it was the size of a baseball. I couldn’t move it at all.

Why did I have to be the one to get hurt? I thought to myself. Especially on the last day on gym class in eighth grade, I can’t think of anything much worse. I should never have gone for that dunk.

See, we had been playing a friendly game of basketball. I got the rebound of a missed shot and raced down the court for the breakaway. This was a fun game, so as I was approaching the basket, I decided to go for a dunk. I had done it plenty of times before, and I knew I could successfully complete it. I jumped up, dunked the ball, and the next thing I know I am on the ground, and all I know is that my ankle hurts. It turns out, as I broke away, everyone on the court came running after me. My teammate, Natalie, was watching the ball as I jumped. She couldn’t stop her momentum and her shoulder hit my left leg. I landed hard on my right leg and my ankle snapped.

As I was sitting on the bench, with ice on my still-throbbing ankle, watching the others play, reality hit me.

I won’t be able to dance! I thought. In a split second, a huge part of my life was eliminated. Nationals were coming up soon, and I could tell I now wouldn’t be able to compete. I felt terrible. Then, the rest of my upcoming end of the year activities came into mind; May Crowning, Confirmation, graduation, our Cedar Point trip, and my dance banquet. I didn’t know how I could participate in any of those things that I had looked forward to for months.

I went to the hospital after school, and found that I had crushed my ankle bone. I left in tears, in a wheel chair with instructions to come back in a week for surgery. I was completely devastated. I was able to attend all my events, just not quite the way I wanted to. I still went to Chicago to watch my studio compete at Nationals. Looking at the bright side of my painful situation, at least my friends and I didn’t have to wait in line for any rides at Cedar Point.

Currency Concerns

China Rejects U.S. Complaints on Its Currency

The United States is right in pressuring China to raise the value of its currency.

If China was to revalue its currency, the United States would see a major increase in domestic consumption, and ultimately jobs. Right now, Americans buy so many Chinese-made products because they are cheap. With a raise in the value of its currency, Chinese products would be more expensive, and much less appealing to American consumers. For example, a toy made in China costs $1 to a U.S. customer, and the same toy made in the U.S. costs $1.03. More American customers would buy the Chinese-made toy, benefiting China’s economy. After the five percent appreciation of the renminbi, the Chinese toy would be $1.05. Americans would now most likely buy the U.S. toy, benefiting our economy. If this happened with all the Chinese products the United States currently imports, we would see a major boost, especially in jobs.

China’s willingness to adjust the value of the renminbi would also probably better the overall relationship between the United States and China. “Internet censorship, hacking attacks directed at American companies, arms sales to Taiwan and the pending visit of the Dalai Lama to Washington have all cropped up in the last month as points of conflict,” Wong and Landler of The New York Times say. For the past few months, the Obama administration has been trying to pressure China to cooperate with the United States and the U.N.’s efforts on many occasions. China just keeps doing things on its own. These decisions by both sides keep increasing tension within the extremely intertwined relationship. If China was to agree to raise the value of the renminbi, it may relieve some of the tension between these two major world powers. The cooperation of China with the U.S. and the U.N. would make world efforts much easier.

The Power of One

The Power of One is definitely one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen. I had no idea what to expect going into it, all I knew was that it took place in South Africa, around the time of World War II. I was shocked when I saw the movie. P.K., even from such a young age, is faced with major hardships. Everyone and everything he loves gets taken away from him throughout the movie. He still manages to make it through and continues to help others. Since he was raised in a multi-racial environment, he has no racial views. He has the gift of language, and is able to speak multiple languages. This allows him to bring the prisoners together and later to help Zulus from Alexandra learn and be able to teach how to read and write the English language. This all greatly inspired me to try to do more selfless things like him. The scene with all the prisoners singing was probably my favorite scene of the movie. It was really amazing to see the different tribes all together as one become so powerful in rebellion without the Nazis even knowing. However, one of the hardest scenes to watch follows that. Seeing Sergeant Bormann beat and kill Geel Piet was terrible. Piet was such a great and inspiring character, a seeing him die was difficult, but it was nice to see him get a last moment of freedom when he was telling the Sergeant exactly what the prisoners were singing. I learned much more about the actual state of South Africa at the time of Apartheid. I was much more brutal than I expected. The living conditions in places like Alexandra were absolutely atrocious. Overall, I absolutely loved this movie and the message it sent.

Happy New Year!

I had a pretty low key New Year this year. I honestly can’t remember the last time I didn’t go to a party on New Year’s Eve, but this year was a little different. I rang in 2010 with my mom and dad. It was pretty boring but nice in a way. I laid around in my sweats and just had a lazy night. We watched Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in Times Square while eating very good food. I can’t say that I’m sad to see 2009 go. Drama is probably the thing I hate the most and I had no shortage of it in 2009. When you spend nine years with the same group of one hundred kids, tension builds and drama happens. There were some very good times, though, especially at the end of eighth grade. Our class trip to Cedar Point, Graduation and the after party, and even just the excitement of graduating and moving on to high school all made 2009 a year to remember. However, I‘m ready for a fresh start in 2010. Over spring break, I’m turning fifteen and going to Disney World. Disney World in Orlando is my absolute favorite place in the universe. I’ve been there many times before and have wanted to go there for a while, but never worked out with scheduling. I‘m also super excited for the summer Global Ed. trip to Berlin, Prague, and the Swiss Alps. It should be a blast and a wonderful way for me to meet new people. That is exactly what I plan on doing this year. I love my friends, but I want to meet some new people. I love learning about new people and their culture if it is any different from mine. 2010 should be a great year.

Christmas :)

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. Besides having time off from school, I love the whole atmosphere of the season. From the decorations everywhere to the music and even the shopping, everything adds up and creates what I think is perfect. Every year, around Christmas, I get really excited and I love to decorate the house. My family is never quite as into it as I am, but that’s okay. I decorate our entire house, including my room which is always the best. I put lights all over, around my door on the outside and inside, around my closet and even hanging from my chandelier. I have two small Christmas trees, and many other accessories including a Nativity, a stocking, several wreaths and some Christmas themed stuffed animals. Besides decorating, our family has a few traditions. About five years ago, my mom and I started making Christmas Eve Cinnamon Rolls. They’re pretty easy to make. On Christmas Eve, you put frozen dinner rolls in a Bundt pan then add brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla pudding mix, and melted butter. Let them rise over night, put them in the oven on Christmas morning and enjoy. They are incredibly delicious and definitely one of my favorite parts of the holiday. After opening all the presents and digging into the scrumptious cinnamon rolls, my extended family comes over. Three aunts, three uncles, and seven cousins along with my grandpa join my mom, dad, brother and me to further celebrate the holiday. We eat and each open one more present to finish off the day. We always have a wonderful time and I wouldn’t want to celebrate any other way.