Stuff I recall

-One of my first memories doesn't last long due to what actually happened, but here it goes, I was five years old and my mom and I were at a picnic with some friends in Michigan. Everything was going well, we were playing games and I was enjoying a hot dog. This hot dog ended up not being so good about halfway through. I was getting ready to take a bite out of it and a bee landed on the very front where I was about to bite. Sadly, I was not able to see the bee before I took the bite and it became enraged that I had eaten it and stung the back of my throat. I happen to be pretty allergic to bee stings so my throat proceeded to swell to the point where I couldn't breathe anymore. Luckily for me, there was a doctor there who was able to help me breathe before I got to the hospital.

-One of my favorite memories is from my freshman year of high school. It was the year that I first decided I was going to join cross country. It was probably the best decisions of my life. Though it didn't start that way. I had no idea what I was getting into. The first practice of the year came and I was very unprepared. The first day loop, as it was called, is 4.5 miles long. It's also a very simple route to run. Not only could I not come close to keeping up with anybody, I actually got lost. I ended up doing a loop that was about a mile shorter, and I still came in about ten minutes later than the group. I was very down on myself for the entire run thinking I should give up and try again next year. But when I finally made my way to the finishing point, everyone on the small 9 person team was clapping for me and telling me I did a good job. I know now that it was kind of a formality but at that time it made me feel accepted. It was the biggest reason I ended up staying on the team. I got a lot better over the year and over the next four so I ended up being one of the top runners on the team before graduation.

-One of my least favorite memories comes my senior year of high school again during cross country. We had just lost our three top runners due to graduation and our coach of just under 30 years retired with them. Our team was a very young one at this point. With me being the only four year runner and another senior who I got to join his sophomore year. We also only had two juniors out of a team of fifteen. It was pretty much assumed over the entire summer training that I would be the captain so I pretty much took the position of leader over the summer and the beginning part of the season. Our new coach took his time trying to decide who would be the captain(s) of the team. After the he finally decided to hold a meeting to announce it. He took awhile talking about how difficult of a decision it was and finally announced that the two would be one of the juniors, who was the top runner but had only run for two years, and my senior friend who had only run three years, and knew the coach through speech and debate when our coach was his coach there. It really doesn't sound like a big deal but I took it that way. It seemed like I had put in the time and effort and not gotten the respect I deserved from it.