Starting From The End

There I was. Sitting on the edge of the motocross trailer with a searing pain going through my foot.

When I was around 13 my brother, father, and I started to ride motorcycles again. We had not ridden for probably 7 years, and decided to start back up. At first we started to just ride at my uncles track behind his house, but it was fairly small, and we wanted to try something new. We drove out to a track in Madison County about 30 minutes south of Tallahassee. The track was very large and mostly sand, so it was a perfect track to learn on. We started to go out around every other weekend. I had been jumping a few of the jumps, and one time when we went out I really wanted to try a new one so I came around the corner two corners before the jump, but I changed my mind so I went slow on the next corner. I changed my mind again after that corner, and hit the throttle. I didn’t have enough time though. I came up on the jump without enough speed and cased(hitting the top of the jump without clearing it) the jump. I hit so hard that my heel was pushed underneath the foot peg and hit the ground. I stayed on the bike though and road back to the car with my newly broken heel. I was in extreme pain however it wasn’t bad enough to the point where I needed to leave immediately so I let my brother, and dad finish there laps before we left. When I went to the doctor h said I had chipped a piece of the bone off and I would be in a boot for a while.

My “Growing Up” story really isn’t a story about growing up at all, but it does kid of show the gain of maturity during my childhood. I will start of by saying that I hated writing in middle school. I could not stand it, and when we had to write a paper for our science fair I was dreading the moment. I did my project on the fermentation of juice using various fruits, however I miss calculated how long it would take to ferment. It ended up taking two days longer than the amount of time we had for the project so I had to write all of the papers in one day. It took be until four the next morning to finish the project, and I almost stopped, however after thinking for a minute I relieved that I could do it. Then in around 40-50 more minutes I finished. When I look back on that project now I know that a year before I did that project I probably would have stopped.

Area of expertise

My area of expertise would have to be go-karts. I have race for about four years. I have always enjoyed it because of the speed and quick thinking necessary to race. The rush that racing gives you is like nothing else.  The first time that I ever drove a go-kart I fell in love with it.  Just driving is fun, but racing is what makes it amazing.

            Driving is just around the track trying to improve on time by just a hundredth of a second. My average time around a track was normally about a 105.3 second time with variations from 105.4 to 105.2 but normally I would run a 105.3 with some sort of variation in the hundredths of a second. This is when the really grueling task of just doing laps and laps of driving comes into play. I still love to do it though. Practice makes perfect and it is really the only way to get better.

            Racing is where the real fun is at. Right of the start the race to pass as many people before the first turn is the most exhilarating part of the race. Normally you will change four or five positions after every start. After the start the first corner is the most dangerous part of the race. The best way to get through is to stay out then hit apex early. By hitting the inside of the corner early it cuts everyone out of the front spot and allows you to take it. Then after that maintaining a consistent lap time is key.

            My biggest achievement in racing is getting sixth in the western hemisphere national for my age group. The feel of placing that high was amazing and I really impressed myself. I spun once in this race and that really slowed me down, however it was one of the best experiences of my life. Racing is amazing.

Stranger in a Strange Land

                I have never lived in a foreign country however i have been to many. I have been to Italy, France, England, and Costa Rica. I have never lived in a country other than the U.S. though. I think that going to a country, and living in one are completely different experiences. When i go to a country i always have the same things that i would have here. I buy what I want there and bring everything that I can't buy there from home, but if you live there you cant do that. When you live there you will run out of whatever you bring and of you can't buy it you must go without it. I think that living in another country would be an amazing experience, but I also think that it would be a slightly frightening. I think that I may eventually go and live in another country for a six months or a year just for the experience. One novel that really emphasizes on the fear of living in a new country is American Born Chinese. This novel shows the fear of Jin a chinese boy in a foreign land.
               Jin seems like he tried to cope but eventually could not and became Danny. That made him have less fear than he did before because he fit in. The hardest part about living in a foreign country is fitting in. By changing or slightly adapting to the foreign countries native culture. By doing this you could live in a foreign country and be much happier.