FINALLY

Finally! The day has come, the day I have been waiting for all year, my last day of school.  I was thrilled to start my high school career four years ago and I am even more thrilled for it to be over.  I have nothing but good things to look forward to this summer.  The first item on the agenda is prom, in a few days I will be attending with the most beautiful girl at Saint Marks.  After that, it is the most anticipated senior week, where I will be rooming with eight of my best friends, and I could not be more excited.  This summer will be 100% carefree.  I have a solid lifeguarding job lined up for the summer, where I can soak up the sun and "chill", all while getting paid.  I was also offered a head coaching job at a local pool, which I intend to take.  I cant wait to coach the Wedgewood Waves and hopefully lead them to a Suburban Swim League championship, even though the finished last in the worst division last year.  Even after summer I will be attending the University of Delaware and living with my best friend Anthony.  Today is the 1st day of the rest of my life.

Graduation

With graduation only a week away I have beginning to ask myself the question, will I survive in college? Obviously I assume I will literally survive the college scene, and I don't think I will have any problems making friends, that has always been easy for me.  Graduating high school has yet to really hit me and I am not sure if I should be worried about that.  My motto this year has been along the lines of, everything will play itself out.  In accordance to that motto I have been going with the flow.  This has worked out pretty well so far this year besides the plummet in my grades, but who cares, I'm a senior!  I have been saying that in my head all year, maybe to try to cope with my laziness.  Although I have developed some rather unhealthy habits this year, I think I'll get myself together in college.  In other words I will rise to the occasion.  After touring UD I am more than excited to start my college career.  My approach for the next four or so years is to set goals in order to stay motivated, you could say I have a goal to set goals.  I am sure everything will turn out fine in the end. ....................p.s. Thanks for putting up with me these last 2 years, you've been a great teacher!!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The movie displayed Li Mu Bai as one of the greatest warriors of all time and he has a strong desire to teach a young girl named Jen.  Jen is an extremely talented fighter, she showed that she could defeat almost any opponent in her path and she doesn't show fear.  Jen does have many flaws unfortunately, she is stubborn, selfish, and disrespectful.  Mu Bai, an extraordinary fighter, and Jen declines.  Through all of her flaws, Mu Bai still sees large potential in the girl and good in her heart.  He feels that she is worthy to learn the Wudan values.  At the end of the film Li Mu Bai saves Jen's life but dies in the process, this is a wake up call to Jen.  She tried her hardest to revive Mu Bai, by running back to town and conjuring up an anti-dote to the poison, but she did not return in time.  Li Mu Bai's partner, Shu Lien, gives some words of wisdom to the young girl.  She takes this to heart and travels to Wudan mountain to learn how to use her talents in a more constructive way.

Third Times The Charm

Third times the charm certainly proved true this Tuesday night.  My friends Anthony, Kyle, and I showed the rec league how to really play 3 on 3 basketball.  We have played in the tournament for the last three years and our record the first two years was an embarrassing 1-2.  We are basketball fanatics, we love watching it and love playing it even more.  Now, we know were not really good at basketball but this winter we joined a CYO team at Holy Angels.  We finished out our CYO season with the record of 2-10, one of the wins by forfeit.  Regardless of our record we knew the Blue-Gold rec league was ours this year.  We arrived Tuesday at 6:30 with our traditional V-necks.  We had a great first round winning by a wide margin, maybe with some help from the ref. In our second game we faced our arch rivals, the St. Johns players, what they didn't know was, we were out for revenge, and we got it.  After the first two games we faced a new enemy, stamina.  None of us were really in cardiovascular shape since we hadn't really done any physical activity in the last three weeks. We battled through our poor physical state by winning in the semi-finals with a go ahead basket in the last minute (made by me by the way, just saying).  Finally, it was the moment we had been waiting for, for the last three years, the championship game.  We were going up against the team that knocked us out of the tournament the previous year, but this time we came to play, and play we did.  Kyle kicked off the game with a spot up three pointer, followed by another one giving us a 6-0 advantage.  The opposing team fought back to tie the score and then took a 9-6 lead.  I then lead our scoring rally with a block on one of their teammates and then an immediate jumper, there was no looking back after that.  It was a miracle, the New Castle County Globetrotters had finally took home the gold!

180

After January 28th, 2013 I thought I would never be happy again.  That is the day my dad passed away.  For weeks all my mom would do was sleep but who could blame her, all I wanted to do was make her happy again.  There were not many conversations going on around my house, we all sort of kept to ourselves but recently it has seemed like my life has done a 180.  I have started going out with a girl that I have had the biggest crush on since Freshmen year.  I never thought of myself ever going on a date with this girl except in my dreams.  In February I figured how could things get any worse so I decided to ask her out on Valentines day and to my surprise she said yes.  Ever since then we have been talking non stop and going out every weekend. It feels great.  Not only are things going great with my high school crush but my sisters birthday is tomorrow and the family is going out to dinner together.  I think its going to be a happy event and I cant wait to go out with everyone.  My mother has also returned to her normal self and she has her life back together yet again.  I still think about my dad everyday but it feels good thinking that my family is beginning to become happy once again.

Fashion Show

This year was the first time I have participated in Blue Gold's famous Fashion Show and it was a blast.  I regret not trying out in previous years, it was without a doubt the most fun I have had at a school event.  I became close friends with everyone in my group as we worked as a team to come up with an excellently choreographed routine.  I also was able to meet all the buddies and it was great talking and interacted with them.  My dad was extremely involved with peoples with intellectual and physical disabilities, since he dedicated his life to Easter Seals.  Growing up I used to visit the facilities and I knew never to use the "R" word but I never got as involved as I wanted to. After  I went to Easter Seal's big volleyball tournament, which is one of their biggest fundraisers and modeling in Blue Gold I've discovered that I really like what these organizations are doing and I might have found a possible career path.  Over the last couple of weeks I have met many of the people with intellectual disabilities that go to Easter Seals and they told me stories about my dad and how he changed their life and it really made a giant impact on me.  I am strongly considering pursuing a similar career that my dad loved.

Unbelievable

The most unbelievable event occurred in my life just a couple of weeks ago, when I was a part of the number one relay in Delaware, and in St. Mark’s history.  My relay consisted of Sean Baker, Bryan Pannacione, his brother Connor Pannacione, and me.  In that relay I was the anchor and the pressure was on.  Our main competition was Sallies and Charter, who had previously beaten us, not only in the regular season, but in prelims a couple days before as well.  We entered in on Saturday seeded at fourth, but luckily we had a lane right next to Charter.  The relay was the second event of the meet and the first event seemed like an eternity.  Finally, the official blew the whistle that indicted Bryan to get in the water.  He got the relay off to a great start gaining a superb lead over everyone, he later went on to win his individual in the backstroke and missed the state record by two tenths of a second.  Sean Baker was next and he flew off the block, unfortunately for him he was racing against the fastest breastroker in the state, and but he maintained the lead.  Baker finished strong and Connor had a great start, at this time I was stepping up on the block and my knees would not stop knocking.  Connor came in tied with Charter and Sallies hot on our trail when I dove in.  As soon as I hit the water all I was thinking to myself was DO NOT BREATHE. After I flipped and burst off the wall, I saw out of my peripherals that I had gained a minuscule lead, and after that I just began to kick like I never had before.  I finished my last 10 meters and slammed into the wall, not knowing the result of the race.  As soon as I finished my head whipped over to the scoreboard and, I could hear everyone cheering and I looked at St. Marks with the number one spot as all of my teammates were jumping up and down, going insane.