Are You Gonna Sink or Swim?

                “This is your time. It’s up to you four. I have complete faith you can do it. Now you need to believe that. I know it’s a rough day, but this is your time to do work. You need to take your sadness, your anger, every emotion, and put it into this race. So all I can ask is…”

                This was the most important meet of our season. We were swimming our rivals, and we needed to win this meet in order to win league. Normally this would be just another meet with a little extra pressure. However, this year, this meet came the day after a school wide tragedy. There was a lot of stress, and it was hard to focus.

                When we got to the pool, there was an overall lackluster feeling. No one was ready, and I knew that wasn’t okay. A few of us tried to pump everyone up, and it started working a little. As we warmed up, we started realizing that this was a very important meet, and then we felt the intensity.

                The meet started and we were doing pretty well. Our coach was pleased, but he was also getting nervous. He placed us in events strategically based on our own statistics versus the other teams. Although we were winning at the half, we weren’t up as much as he wanted. The next event, we got a disqualification, and we were down.

                I was in the next event, and it was up to us. We were the 200 freestyle relay and we needed to win to get the points back. Relays are worth double points than individual races, and we knew we needed to produce results. We went into our huddle and our coach came over. He said a speech I will always remember. At the end, he only had one question: “are you gonna sink, or swim?”

                When he said this, it made me think so much in such a short amount of time. I thought about all of my stress and my problems and looked at it as extra weight. All that extra weight was going to sink. By my coach saying that, he helped me to realize that I need to leave my excess baggage at the door and focus on the task ahead. He started to walk away and no one said anything, so I said quickly, “Hey Scott, we’re gonna swim.”

                We all put our heads together and said, “Let’s swim.” We got in order, and there was a still silence in the pool area. The silence spoke to us and brought the intensity level up. When the buzzer went off, everyone went wild. As Maddie did her flip turn, I stepped on the block. This race was for my school. This race was for my coach. This race was for my team. This race was for anyone who cared.

                In the end, we came in first in the race and ended up winning the meet. Our fans, our team, and our coaches welcomed us with opened arms and a lot of cheering. The feeling we had walking over to them was exhilarating. It felt amazing to make such a contribution and help out my team mates. This reflects to my life because it makes me think that when the pressure is on and I’m at the bottom, all I need to do is swim to the top!

The Archer

1.) I chose this essay over my other two because it shows who I really am and also I get to talk about a unique interest of mine.

2.) This essay can relate to people that are interested on learning something new and, what I find to be, cool.

3.) My weakness in the essay could be my organization.

4.) A question I could ask is should I add more personal things or keep it like this?

                Independent. Adventurous. Philosopher. Free. Optimistic. Strong. Honest. Humorous.

                The world of the zodiac is a complex concept. There are houses, ruling planets, traits, and certain times the sun shines through each sign. I never knew about the significance of the zodiac until my freshman year of high school, and since then I have been infatuated with it.

                I have done the most research on my own zodiac sign, which is Sagittarius. Our “sunshine” comes November 22 - December 21. The sun symbolizes when your sign is relaxed and most natural. In the beginning of the month, we get rid of all of our problems to make sure nothing is holding us back. Once we get to the middle of our sun month, we are at our prime. We don’t stress and we stay away from anything that will affect us in a negative manner. At the end of our month, we want change. After such a successful, happy month, we start looking for a challenge that will test us.

                The symbol for the Sagittarius is the archer. The top of the archer is a man which symbolizes strength and the high intellect Sagittarius’s have. The archer has the bottom of a horse which is the freedom and adventure aspect. The archer as a whole is independent and that is the main characteristic of the Sagittarius. The personality traits are my favorite part of the zodiac. I feel that I embody every trait of the Sagittarius, and I can tell what signs other people are based on attitude.

                With the study of characteristics in each sign, I found my favorite personal trait. All Sagittarius are known for being optimistic when things go wrong. We live life thinking the glass is always half full and we never take anything for granted. My positive attitude has helped me get through many situations and it’s also nice to know that my friends count on me to cheer them up. My upbeat personality rubs off on other people and I love seeing people smile when I’m around.

                Many people don’t know anything about the zodiac world. There was a lot to learn and it was confusing at first, but once I learned what I know, there was no doubt that I had entered a whole new side of myself. None of my friends knew what I did and the world of the zodiac is something that has always been my own. I never go a day without looking at my horoscope and I am always learning new things.  My knowledge for my zodiac was the one push I needed to help me reach that independence and make me a true Sagittarius.