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.

Friends

Over the past four years I have gone through many friend groups and made many acquaintances.  I have socialized with multiple different cliques, fashioned all the hottest styles, and sported every fad, but I think I have finally found where I belong.  After 3 years of, what seemed like, an endless elimination process of "friends", I finally have found a tight group of people I would do anything for.  It started when I began hanging out with my best friend and he introduced me too the "crew".  They had pretty high standards to make their friend group and fortunately, I made the cut.  The group has become my family.Out of all the friends I have had these are the few I feel like I can completely be myself around.   Now all the boys in the crew have rented a beach house this summer, I hope the eight of us will have a blast.  Hopefully our friendship perseveres  with eight of us living in the same home together for three months.  The biggest decision we have now is if we will be housing a turtle, fish, or hamster for the house.  I am so ready, and anxious to be spending the last months with these kids before my life gets complicated.

Decisions, Decisions

I have been swimming all of my life, since the age of five.  I got the hang of it at an early age and I have always been known as a good swimmer.  I have always made the Suburban Swim League championships, won a couple Boys & Girls club medals, and even won a gold.  Freshman year of course I went out for the swim team and had a pretty good season, as well as sophomore year.  What I never pictured myself is a really good swimmer until recently.  I will begin from the start of the season.  I debated on quitting my senior year, I thought I would have better things to do and to be honest I lost all interest, but mother was not having that.  I  figured since it is my senior year I would go all out and give it my all, something I had failed to do my previous high school seasons.  Over the summer I had been lifting weight habitually and gained around 15 pounds of muscle, and it showed in my stroke.  My first meet I had crushed my best times and received all firsts.  I continued going to practice and working my hardest.  Our second meet we faced a very improved team and Mr. Magearle talked to me before stressing that I and my teammate would have some very difficult swimmers we would have to beat in order for us to win. Again I gained my best times.  I have maintain this work ethic and my times have proven that.  Yet this is not when I discovered I am a really good swimmer, it was when Mr. Magearle called me out in lunch to ask if I intended on swimming in college.  This concept has never crossed my mind, and one of the colleges I applied to is York college. Although I most likely cannot walk on to a Division one team like the other colleges I applied to I can swim for York's team, division two.  Now I need to weigh the pros and cons of swimming on the next level.

The University

Thank God! I have finally finished all my college applications for the rest of my life.  No more stress.  Only that is not true, my biggest worry now is will I get in?  I am confident I will be accepted to the majority of the colleges I applied to except my number one choice, University of Delaware. It's an awful feeling and I brought it upon myself, I did not seek the help I needed in my math class, and my grade reflected that.  The University of Delaware is a perfect fit for me, it is not far from my house but far enough away that I can experience living on campus on my own.  Many of my close friends will be attending, and I feel comfortable with area and the campus.  Most of all, my best friend is planning on attending the university and we had already planned to live together, it will be disappointing for both of us if I am not admitted.   Whether or not I am accepted, this situation has matured me, and taught the lesson that when I'm off to college I cannot slack, and have to keep up with the classes.  Fortunately, there are many of other colleges that would love to have me and I am grateful for this.  Don't get me wrong, I believe I still have a chance with The University of Delaware or else I would not have wasted the 75 dollars on the application ( which is absurd if you ask me).  At this point all I can do is pray and enjoy my final year of high school.