A. What invention strategy did you find worked best for you? Why do you think this strategy was the most helpful? What other prewriting did you do before writing your draft?
The strategy that I found to work best for me was to construct a game plan. For the most part, I stuck with my game plan to help me write my essay. I did not do any other pre-writing; I stuck with the game plan so I could get it accomplished.
B. Which prompt did you end up selecting? Did you consider any other options or change your mind during the drafting process?
I ended up choosing the second prompt. I also considered the first prompt but then decided against it. I thought about changing my mind when I began to write my essay, but I called my mom and she gave me some ideas to help me get started writing.
C. What difficulties did you experience trying to discover a single focus or reason for writing?
The main difficulty that I experienced was thinking of a select memory. That was the part that took me the longest to do.
D. What one or two (thesis) sentence(s) from your essay articulates your purpose for writing? (Write your thesis statement below.)
There is rarely a meal at my house that goes without laughter.
Since I was young, we always had pasta at least once a week.
E. What problems did you have trying to organize your essay? How did you overcome these difficulties?
The main problem I had with organizing my essay was the organization of some of the paragraphs. For the most part, I believe my essay is in order, but there is room for improvement.
F. If you were starting the assignment over from scratch, what would you do differently? What changes would you make to your writing /thinking process?
If I was to start over, the things I would do differently are as follows: call my mom before sitting there trying to write for an hour and getting nowhere, construct a better game plan, and thinking about all of the options for a longer time than what I did to better make a decision.
G. What do you like best about your essay?
The part of my essay that I like the most is the conclusion. Not because it is the end but because I think I did a relatively good job of wrapping my thoughts up.
H. What do you like least about your essay?
The part of my essay that I like the least is the body. I fell as if it does not flow that great and is kind of choppy. I need to work on the transitions from paragraph to paragraph.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Food Essay
Brianne Butler
bmbutler@mail.usi.edu
English 201.010
Essay 2 Draft
Word Count: 1162
Dinner Time Isn’t Only for Eating
Passing around the dinner rolls, scooping pasta out of the pot, and serving apple sauce is quite common at The Butler household. Pasta is an entrée that my family commonly eats. Dinner time at my house is a time not only to consume food but also for communication about our days. At some point during our conversation someone will say something hysterical. There is rarely a meal at my house that goes without laughter.
Since I was young, we always had pasta at least one a week. The type of pasta would vary week to week. Most common, we had manicotti . The manicotti that my mother makes is one of the best I have ever had. Creamettes manicotti noodles, original Prego, tomato paste, and ground round. Yes, those are typical ingredients for manicotti, but for some reasons my mother’s has always tasted better. I believe it is made with love and no one else can re-create that. When I began the teenage years, my mother decided that it would be wise if she began to teach me how to cook. She always thought that during the winter months she would get snowed in at work, across the state line in Missouri, and the rest of the family would not have any food made to eat; since my father cannot cook. She figured that since I absolutely love pasta that she would start small and teach me how to cook manicotti.
One Saturday afternoon in autumn, my mother said to me, “Brianne, I am going to teach you how to cook manicotti this evening.” I was on Cloud 9 when she informed that I would be cooking dinner. At about four thirty, we began my first cooking lesson. I thought that it was a lot harder than she made it seem. I had problems with boiling the water, I was impatient and I could not wait. There was too much going on at once; waiting for the water to boil, preheating the over, preparing the meat, and starting the sauce. At first, I was overwhelmed and was about to give up. I decided that my mother wanted to teach me for a reason and I stuck with it. She told me that a good cook will do things in a certain order and she taught me how she prepared one of my favorite meals.
After we got a majority of the meal started, we started adding spices to the sauce. Parsley flakes, minced onion, minced garlic, and garlic salt are the ingredients there is no set amount that we put in; we just stop when it smells good. After the noodles were cooked, we put them in a cold water bath so we would be able to stuff them. We began to roll the meat in a cylinder shape so it would fit in the noodle; we would then put the stuffed noodles in the pan. Once all fourteen noodles were stuffed we poured our homemade sauce on them. The final step before putting the meal in the oven was to put parmesan cheese, Swiss cheese, and mozzarella cheese on the top of sauce. The final step of the meal before consumption was to put it in the over for an hour at 350 degrees. After completing all of the steps to making manicotti, my mother said, “You did a really good job and I am proud of you.”
During the time I was learning to prepare this delicious meal, the sauce ended up all over me. Who knew that during cooking more food could end up on you than for the meal? After waiting for the timer to buzz felt like an eternity when in reality, it was only sixty minutes. The timer buzzed. I was excited to see the end product. Excellent, would be the word to describe the meal. I eagerly called the rest of my family for dinner. As I served dinner, my family was impressed that I had made this meal. It tasted delicious. I received so many complements about my cooking. Since my family enjoyed my cooking it made me what to be able to cook everything just like my mother did. My mother began allowing me to cook more and more things. I was glad to take on the responsibility of cooking.
As long as I can remember, every meal there will be an outburst of laughter; at least one time a week, my mother will end up crying at the table due to laughter. To me, food not only reminds me of time to eat but a time of laughter and jubilation. Meal time does not only mean food, it usually entails me hysterically laughing as well. There is never a dull conversation when my family and I eat. Someone will say something completely out of order or something that happened to them during the day or even the occasional impersonation of a co-worker from my dad. Before I left for college, I made my mother cry from laughter. We were recalling stories from the past and the one came up about me falling out of the high chair when I was a few months old. This was a shocker to me I never knew that I fell when I was a baby. Without thinking about the proper way to phrase what I wanted to say, I immediately said, “Did you think you hurt her?” By the time the words were out of my mouth, my brother, mother, and father were all laughing hysterically. It takes a lot to make my father laugh, but I sure did. I did not realize what was so funny until about thirty minutes later when someone finally calmed down and was able to tell me what was so funny. Whenever we see our mother in tears from laughing we know someone said something ridiculously funny. Usually the culprit is me.
Since I have been away from my house for meal time, I feel as if I am missing out on a part of my family’s life and since I do not have a kitchen in my room on campus, I make it up at The Loft most days. Maybe I have luck that makes everything that happens to me seem funny or maybe I am a funny person in general. My family will call me if something made everyone laugh at the dinner table and tell me all about it. Laughter burns calories and on some occasions I feel as if at dinner time my family burns more calories than they consumed.
Dinner time to me is not only a time to eat but a time for conversation as well. I fell as if talking during meal time bring people closer together and more connected. Food brings people together for more than one thing. Meal time is something that I look forward to daily, not for the food but for the conversations that will arise from the meal.
bmbutler@mail.usi.edu
English 201.010
Essay 2 Draft
Word Count: 1162
Dinner Time Isn’t Only for Eating
Passing around the dinner rolls, scooping pasta out of the pot, and serving apple sauce is quite common at The Butler household. Pasta is an entrée that my family commonly eats. Dinner time at my house is a time not only to consume food but also for communication about our days. At some point during our conversation someone will say something hysterical. There is rarely a meal at my house that goes without laughter.
Since I was young, we always had pasta at least one a week. The type of pasta would vary week to week. Most common, we had manicotti . The manicotti that my mother makes is one of the best I have ever had. Creamettes manicotti noodles, original Prego, tomato paste, and ground round. Yes, those are typical ingredients for manicotti, but for some reasons my mother’s has always tasted better. I believe it is made with love and no one else can re-create that. When I began the teenage years, my mother decided that it would be wise if she began to teach me how to cook. She always thought that during the winter months she would get snowed in at work, across the state line in Missouri, and the rest of the family would not have any food made to eat; since my father cannot cook. She figured that since I absolutely love pasta that she would start small and teach me how to cook manicotti.
One Saturday afternoon in autumn, my mother said to me, “Brianne, I am going to teach you how to cook manicotti this evening.” I was on Cloud 9 when she informed that I would be cooking dinner. At about four thirty, we began my first cooking lesson. I thought that it was a lot harder than she made it seem. I had problems with boiling the water, I was impatient and I could not wait. There was too much going on at once; waiting for the water to boil, preheating the over, preparing the meat, and starting the sauce. At first, I was overwhelmed and was about to give up. I decided that my mother wanted to teach me for a reason and I stuck with it. She told me that a good cook will do things in a certain order and she taught me how she prepared one of my favorite meals.
After we got a majority of the meal started, we started adding spices to the sauce. Parsley flakes, minced onion, minced garlic, and garlic salt are the ingredients there is no set amount that we put in; we just stop when it smells good. After the noodles were cooked, we put them in a cold water bath so we would be able to stuff them. We began to roll the meat in a cylinder shape so it would fit in the noodle; we would then put the stuffed noodles in the pan. Once all fourteen noodles were stuffed we poured our homemade sauce on them. The final step before putting the meal in the oven was to put parmesan cheese, Swiss cheese, and mozzarella cheese on the top of sauce. The final step of the meal before consumption was to put it in the over for an hour at 350 degrees. After completing all of the steps to making manicotti, my mother said, “You did a really good job and I am proud of you.”
During the time I was learning to prepare this delicious meal, the sauce ended up all over me. Who knew that during cooking more food could end up on you than for the meal? After waiting for the timer to buzz felt like an eternity when in reality, it was only sixty minutes. The timer buzzed. I was excited to see the end product. Excellent, would be the word to describe the meal. I eagerly called the rest of my family for dinner. As I served dinner, my family was impressed that I had made this meal. It tasted delicious. I received so many complements about my cooking. Since my family enjoyed my cooking it made me what to be able to cook everything just like my mother did. My mother began allowing me to cook more and more things. I was glad to take on the responsibility of cooking.
As long as I can remember, every meal there will be an outburst of laughter; at least one time a week, my mother will end up crying at the table due to laughter. To me, food not only reminds me of time to eat but a time of laughter and jubilation. Meal time does not only mean food, it usually entails me hysterically laughing as well. There is never a dull conversation when my family and I eat. Someone will say something completely out of order or something that happened to them during the day or even the occasional impersonation of a co-worker from my dad. Before I left for college, I made my mother cry from laughter. We were recalling stories from the past and the one came up about me falling out of the high chair when I was a few months old. This was a shocker to me I never knew that I fell when I was a baby. Without thinking about the proper way to phrase what I wanted to say, I immediately said, “Did you think you hurt her?” By the time the words were out of my mouth, my brother, mother, and father were all laughing hysterically. It takes a lot to make my father laugh, but I sure did. I did not realize what was so funny until about thirty minutes later when someone finally calmed down and was able to tell me what was so funny. Whenever we see our mother in tears from laughing we know someone said something ridiculously funny. Usually the culprit is me.
Since I have been away from my house for meal time, I feel as if I am missing out on a part of my family’s life and since I do not have a kitchen in my room on campus, I make it up at The Loft most days. Maybe I have luck that makes everything that happens to me seem funny or maybe I am a funny person in general. My family will call me if something made everyone laugh at the dinner table and tell me all about it. Laughter burns calories and on some occasions I feel as if at dinner time my family burns more calories than they consumed.
Dinner time to me is not only a time to eat but a time for conversation as well. I fell as if talking during meal time bring people closer together and more connected. Food brings people together for more than one thing. Meal time is something that I look forward to daily, not for the food but for the conversations that will arise from the meal.
Friday, February 19, 2010
My Second Essay Pick
For our second essay that we have to write I have chosen to write about Food and Memory. It is the best selection for me because since I have been away from home it really has hit me that I miss having a home cooked meal; I also know what ingredients are in as well. Numerous time I have thought about my mothers food I don't think I would be missing home cooked food so much if I lived in the apartments and had a kitchen where I could cook when I wanted.
The modes of writing which I will probably use are description, narration and illustration.
My game plan for writing this essay is as follows:
1. Walk to the library and find a nice place where I will be able to write without distractions.
2. Pre-write a list of possible topics to include.
3. Think of a catchy and cleaver title.
4. Write some great paragraphs.
5. Take a brief break and gather my thoughts; see what everyone is doing later in the evening.
6. Finish composing the rest of my essay and revise it.
7. Have a friend or two look it over and tell me where all I could use improvement.
That is my game plan for tackling this essay. I hope I don't get off-sides while writing.
The modes of writing which I will probably use are description, narration and illustration.
My game plan for writing this essay is as follows:
1. Walk to the library and find a nice place where I will be able to write without distractions.
2. Pre-write a list of possible topics to include.
3. Think of a catchy and cleaver title.
4. Write some great paragraphs.
5. Take a brief break and gather my thoughts; see what everyone is doing later in the evening.
6. Finish composing the rest of my essay and revise it.
7. Have a friend or two look it over and tell me where all I could use improvement.
That is my game plan for tackling this essay. I hope I don't get off-sides while writing.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Fast Food Nation Post 2
Things that I would be interested in learning more about:
1. The correlation of parents working more and spending more money on their children.
2. Why in 1999 children's favorite television ad was the Budweiser ad.
3. Why fast food chains spend nearly 3 billion dollars on television advertising.
4. Who thinks about the toys which are distributed within the Happy Meals. What the thought process is to determining which toy will be put in when.
1. The correlation of parents working more and spending more money on their children.
2. Why in 1999 children's favorite television ad was the Budweiser ad.
3. Why fast food chains spend nearly 3 billion dollars on television advertising.
4. Who thinks about the toys which are distributed within the Happy Meals. What the thought process is to determining which toy will be put in when.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
3 Paragraphs
As one would walk into the bookstore, they may notice the prices of items to be higher than expected. There are many ways that the university bookstore takes advantage of students. The prices of textbooks are extremely expensive. I have only bought a few of my books from the bookstore, all the other ones I have rented from Txtbookrental so I would be saving money. At the end of the academic school year, I plan on selling the few books that I did by back even though I will not get as near as much money for the book as it is worth. The price of tuition is not cheap and you would think that the university would help its students out by lowering the price of textbooks.
Mode of writing: illustration
As my alarm went off at 6:10, I looked out the window and noticed the sidewalks were still covered in snow. Confused, I logged on to my computer and realized that the university would be closed until noon. I fell back asleep for a few more hours woke up only to realize that I needed to hurry and get ready or I would be late to class. Rushing to get ready, I could not remember if it was test day or not, I could not remember anything. Being able to sleep for a few more hours had really messed my sense of time up. When I strolled on to class, I came to realize that test day was not until the following class. When it was all said and done, I was just glad to call it a day.
Mode of writing: Narration
As I came back to campus from a nice weekend away Sunday evening, I wondered if any crazy events took place in my room. As soon as I opened the door to my dorm, I knew that my roommate has played party host all weekend long. The place was a disaster and she was not there, so I could not ask her what exactly happened. Cups, bottles, cans, and food took over the room and I could barely make it out of the common room to my room. When I walked into there it was not much better; it look like the next World War occurred. On my half of the room, nothing was where I had left it and all of my stuff had been tampered with. I was beyond angry that all of my stuff was out of place.
Mode of writing: Description
Mode of writing: illustration
As my alarm went off at 6:10, I looked out the window and noticed the sidewalks were still covered in snow. Confused, I logged on to my computer and realized that the university would be closed until noon. I fell back asleep for a few more hours woke up only to realize that I needed to hurry and get ready or I would be late to class. Rushing to get ready, I could not remember if it was test day or not, I could not remember anything. Being able to sleep for a few more hours had really messed my sense of time up. When I strolled on to class, I came to realize that test day was not until the following class. When it was all said and done, I was just glad to call it a day.
Mode of writing: Narration
As I came back to campus from a nice weekend away Sunday evening, I wondered if any crazy events took place in my room. As soon as I opened the door to my dorm, I knew that my roommate has played party host all weekend long. The place was a disaster and she was not there, so I could not ask her what exactly happened. Cups, bottles, cans, and food took over the room and I could barely make it out of the common room to my room. When I walked into there it was not much better; it look like the next World War occurred. On my half of the room, nothing was where I had left it and all of my stuff had been tampered with. I was beyond angry that all of my stuff was out of place.
Mode of writing: Description
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Fast Food Nation Post 1
From this chapter what I'd be interested in learning more about.
1. More about the McDonald's headquarters because it is in Illinois and that is my home state.
2. More about the Disney animators strike.
3. More about Kroc's plans to build an amusement park like Disneyland.
4. More about the reasoning for Disney to build Disney World in Florida.
1. More about the McDonald's headquarters because it is in Illinois and that is my home state.
2. More about the Disney animators strike.
3. More about Kroc's plans to build an amusement park like Disneyland.
4. More about the reasoning for Disney to build Disney World in Florida.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Revision Blog
In order to make my essay better, Alissa suggested that I put more conversation into it. I think that is a really good idea and I plan on doing so. I believe that I can also make my essay more descriptive. I plan on building up anticipation in parts of my essay to leave the reader wondering what will happen next. I believe the peer edit was beneficial to us all as writers; we take in feedback better if it is from one of our peers.
My detailed revision plan includes: checking for punctuation and grammatical errors, adding in more conversation and description, and having a friend edit my paper for any other possible errors. I might take my paper to the Writers Room.
Alissa also suggested to me that I should not make the outcome of events so noticeable. I’m going to work on that part of my essay as well adding in my detail for a dramatic effect. I believe my paragraph order is in chronological order, so I don’t think that I will change that around.
I’m going to re-read my paper backwards from finish to start, so I can check for grammatical and punctuation errors better. I was taught this technique last semester and I think that it works really well. You catch things that may not be noticeable to you if you read your paper from start to finish in the revision stage.
Overall, I believe that I did a really good job on my essay; I’m not saying that it’s perfect because there’s always room for improvement!
My detailed revision plan includes: checking for punctuation and grammatical errors, adding in more conversation and description, and having a friend edit my paper for any other possible errors. I might take my paper to the Writers Room.
Alissa also suggested to me that I should not make the outcome of events so noticeable. I’m going to work on that part of my essay as well adding in my detail for a dramatic effect. I believe my paragraph order is in chronological order, so I don’t think that I will change that around.
I’m going to re-read my paper backwards from finish to start, so I can check for grammatical and punctuation errors better. I was taught this technique last semester and I think that it works really well. You catch things that may not be noticeable to you if you read your paper from start to finish in the revision stage.
Overall, I believe that I did a really good job on my essay; I’m not saying that it’s perfect because there’s always room for improvement!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Self-Evaluation for Draft 1
English 201—Essay #1 Draft Self-evaluation
1. Which prompt did you select? Why did this one appeal to you over the others? What other prompts did you consider?
The prompt that I selected was the second one. I choose to write about this one because I felt that I would be able to expand more off of this topic than any of the other prompts. I considered writing about the prompt from Shame, but I ended up choosing the one about Malcolm X.
2. Which mode(s) of writing were most helpful to you in terms of creating content? Did you primarily tell a story, compare and/or contrast or describe, for example? What other modes of writing/thinking did you utilize?
Primary mode(s): Narration
Secondary mode(s): Description
3. What specific details will you include for your reader? Why are these details important? What do they accomplish?
The specific details that I will include for the reader include the anticipation of try-outs, practices and gymnastics, and the falls which I took.
These details are important because the practices and gymnastics helped me to become the cheerleader that I am today, as well as the falls.
These details accomplish to tell my story about my past and current cheerleading life.
4. What “place(s)” or “scene(s)” do you try to recreate for your reader? Why are they crucial? Paste the most important scene in your essay below:
The places and scenes that I try to recreate for the reader was try-outs and some of the practices. They are crucial because the most detail is given at these points.
The very first practice, I began to learn how to full down from stunts. For months, I wasn't able to make it completely around. I was told, "Grab your pocket." For me, grabbing my pocket wasn't working and I would get stuck half way. In September, I tried a new technique and I was just waiting for the rough on the stomach painful landing. I made it all the way around and was very confused to what had happened and why I was not in pain. After months of hard work and determination, I mastered one of my newest goals.
5. Thinking in terms of your thesis, explain your main reason for writing…What are you hoping to accomplish in your essay? Why does it exist?
My main reason for writing this was to tell my story of cheerleading and to tell about the goals and obstacles I overcame. In this essay, I’m hoping to inform others that cheerleading is not as easy as it may seem.
6. Thinking in terms of your audience, explain what choices you made with your reader in mind…What did you include, what did you take out?
I decided to keep the parts about try-outs and practices. I ended up taking out the part about cheering at the games because I decided that it was not vital to my story with my goals.
7. What problems or struggles did you experience writing this draft? What kind of feedback would you like from your peer reviewers?
I did not seem to run into any struggle writing this draft. The feedback that I hope to get is making sure that my grammar and punctuation are proper.
1. Which prompt did you select? Why did this one appeal to you over the others? What other prompts did you consider?
The prompt that I selected was the second one. I choose to write about this one because I felt that I would be able to expand more off of this topic than any of the other prompts. I considered writing about the prompt from Shame, but I ended up choosing the one about Malcolm X.
2. Which mode(s) of writing were most helpful to you in terms of creating content? Did you primarily tell a story, compare and/or contrast or describe, for example? What other modes of writing/thinking did you utilize?
Primary mode(s): Narration
Secondary mode(s): Description
3. What specific details will you include for your reader? Why are these details important? What do they accomplish?
The specific details that I will include for the reader include the anticipation of try-outs, practices and gymnastics, and the falls which I took.
These details are important because the practices and gymnastics helped me to become the cheerleader that I am today, as well as the falls.
These details accomplish to tell my story about my past and current cheerleading life.
4. What “place(s)” or “scene(s)” do you try to recreate for your reader? Why are they crucial? Paste the most important scene in your essay below:
The places and scenes that I try to recreate for the reader was try-outs and some of the practices. They are crucial because the most detail is given at these points.
The very first practice, I began to learn how to full down from stunts. For months, I wasn't able to make it completely around. I was told, "Grab your pocket." For me, grabbing my pocket wasn't working and I would get stuck half way. In September, I tried a new technique and I was just waiting for the rough on the stomach painful landing. I made it all the way around and was very confused to what had happened and why I was not in pain. After months of hard work and determination, I mastered one of my newest goals.
5. Thinking in terms of your thesis, explain your main reason for writing…What are you hoping to accomplish in your essay? Why does it exist?
My main reason for writing this was to tell my story of cheerleading and to tell about the goals and obstacles I overcame. In this essay, I’m hoping to inform others that cheerleading is not as easy as it may seem.
6. Thinking in terms of your audience, explain what choices you made with your reader in mind…What did you include, what did you take out?
I decided to keep the parts about try-outs and practices. I ended up taking out the part about cheering at the games because I decided that it was not vital to my story with my goals.
7. What problems or struggles did you experience writing this draft? What kind of feedback would you like from your peer reviewers?
I did not seem to run into any struggle writing this draft. The feedback that I hope to get is making sure that my grammar and punctuation are proper.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Cheerleading My Working Goal
Brianne Butler
bmbutler@mail.usi.edu
English 201.010
Essay 1 Draft
Word Count: 1453
Cheerleading My Working Goal
Ever since I was a young girl, I have set goals. My goals have ranged from athletics to academics. Over the years, I have set more goals in athletics because I wanted to be the best. I began setting athletics goals when I was in the fifth grade. I was a member of all the school athletic programs and I was the tiniest one. I had to set goals for myself so I would improve, get better, and have more playing time. After a few months of setting my athletic goals, I began to notice improvement. From that moment on, I knew that if I set goals and strived to reach them that I would be able to accomplish all of my goals.
Before seventh grade, I had never heard of cheerleading. I decided I might as well try it to see if cheerleading was something that I would enjoy. When I first began cheering, I could not do a cartwheel. Once we began I knew that if this was something I wanted to continue, I would have to set goals so I could improve. I asked my mom if I could enroll in a gymnastics class, and she said I could. I started to go to the local gym, Midwest Twisters, and I was soon able to do a cartwheel. I was able to mark one item off of my cheerleading goals, being capable of doing a cartwheel. I then began working on harder tumbling skills; I knew these were not going to come to me as easy and they would take a lot more work and determination.
After cheering for one year at Holy Cross Lutheran School, I decided to transfer schools. I would be attending Collinsville Middle School. My mom called the school district to see when cheerleading try-outs were. That evening, she told me that she called and found out when the try-outs were. At that point in my life, I did not know if cheering was what I wanted to do. I really enjoyed basketball and track, and I did not know if I wanted to give up all other sports just for cheerleading. I ended up going to try-outs and I was certain that I was not going to make the squad based on my tumbling and stunting abilities. A majority of the girls could flip. I decided that I really didn’t have anything to lose so I went to the rest of try-outs. I gave it my all at try-outs and I knew the rest was out of my control to if I made the squad. The next day, we went to go look at the list to see who all had made the squad. The second name on this list happened to be mine, Brianne Butler, I was really excited. I then knew I would have to set a lot more cheerleading goals to improve so I would be right up with all the girls who could tumble.
At practices and gymnastics, I gave it my all; I wanted to get my back handspring. I was then introduced to more stunting than I was at Holy Cross; I was no longer a flyer and had to learn to base. I was still one of the tiniest so I knew it was going to hard work to be able to lift people that weighed more than I did. I set goals for stunting as well, but I wanted to focus more on tumbling. I began taking private tumbling lessons to get better. As the end of the year approached, I had improved but still did not have my back handspring.
Even though I still did not have my back handspring, I decided to try-out for the high school squad. When the day for high school try-outs came around, I was ready. I once again gave it my all and proved that I was working on my back handspring. I made the Collinsville High School JV cheerleading team. From here, I went back to flying and began to work on one leg stunts. I began stretching everyday so I would be able to pull things in the air. During my freshmen year of high school, not only did I get my back handspring, but I also got my round-off back handspring.
The following year at try-outs, I did all of my tumbling that I had and I made the Varsity Squad. I was still flying and improving my air skills and then I got moved back to basing. I had to start all over again, learning the techniques. I based for the next year and a half. My basing goals ranged from basing heel stretches to being able to catch full downs. I managed to meet my stunting goals. I set another tumbling goal that year; to get my round-off back handspring tuck. Every week at gymnastics I tried really hard, and despite numerous face plants to the ground and months later, I achieved my goal! My junior year of try-outs, I made the Varsity squad again and did my tuck at try-outs! I based this entire year without having to start from square one with stunting again. This year, I really decided to challenge myself, I wanted to get more standing tumbling. I took a countless number of face plants into the blue mats that year, but it didn’t discourage me. For our competition routine, I was told I would be doing a standing back handspring tuck; a skill that I did not have. Even though I could not do it, I was determined to get it. Every time we practiced our routine I took another face plant. Taking numerous face plants to the ground each practice was rough, in the end my coach took that part out because none of us who were supposed to do that skill could.
My final year on the high school squad, I had to start over with stunting skills, I was a new and young squad and was the only senior. I had to learn to back spot. I was accustomed to having to learn different places in a stunt group, so I took to it and told myself that I was going to be able to back all kinds of stunts. I became a great back spot. I also challenged myself to more tumbling goals. I told myself by the end of the year that I would have my layout and I would begin working on my full. In November of last year, I got my layout and I begun working on my full.
This past May, I figured why not try-out for college cheerleading, I tried out as a back spot and did all of my tumbling. That night, the coach, asked me about my standing tumbling. I wasn’t planning on throwing my standing tuck but I decided that I had nothing to lose. I took a face plant to the ground but I still held my head up and continued to throw it that night despite only one successful landing. I made the squad and immediately was told that I needed to learn to fly again. The very first practice, I began to learn how to full down from stunts. For months, I wasn't able to make it completely around. I was told, "Grab your pocket." For me, grabbing my pocket wasn't working and I would get stuck half way. In September, I tried a new technique and I was just waiting for the rough on the stomach painful landing. I made it all the way around and was very confused to what had happened and why I was not in pain. After months of hard work and determination, I mastered one of my newest goals. I have never set so many goals for myself in one year. I have gone from pro-back spot to a flyer that isn’t scared to fall from pyramids.
My main goal that I set for myself this year was to improve my stunting skills and to not be afraid of stunting. I have passed that goal with flying colors! I really proved this past month when we were doing stunts that I had never done before and I went in not afraid and I did what I had to do.
Moreover, I have set many goals in my life. Mostly, my goals have dealt with cheerleading and athletics. I still am setting goals cheerleading goals so that I can improve and become a better cheerleader. I know I am not the best and that is what pushes me to make and meet goals. For me, it goes to show that hard work and determination will help you reach your goals!
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