Personal Narrative: My Move

When I was a kid, I loved being outside and jumping rope. One day was different, I kept falling and was getting bruised and hurt. However, I stayed optimistic and went back outside. I was failing every time, but I was determined to get it right. Therefore, even though I was in a bad situation and kept getting hurt, I stayed hopeful and positive that I would get it at one point.

I remembered my father told me “ you better get ready because this is some real shit”. My body started to feel different, I wasn't feeling scared I was feeling adrenaline running all over by body. I couldn't wait for those roping skills and techniques to come to me, I had to work real hard. Those skills didn't come overnight. It was all the hours I spent in the arena practicing ,roping poles, bushes, dogs or anything I could see I would be able to rope.

It was a rainy day, for I felt gloomy, tired, drowsy, and drained. It was freshman year, and I was ready to compete in the regional championships of 1A high school swimming. I was going to swim in the 400 freestyle relay, and I was nervous, excited, ready, and energized. As I sat on the bleachers, where the CSD swim team was located. Before I knew it I was up on the starting block, just about ready to dive off after the previous swimmer made it to the wall.

I ignored the pull of gravity and the screaming of my body and lunged forward. All the while the only thought I could produce was, “Why am I doing this?” I started cross-country freshman year. In middle school, I had played on the school football team. But being 5 foot 5 inches tall and ninety pounds, did not really equate to football.

I realized that we would never reach our dream. We had lost. This failure not only shaped me to be a more successful person, but it fueled me to try harder to work towards my goal of going to a national competition. At first, losing the opportunity to go to a national cheerleading competition had made me never want to step foot on a mat again. I felt like we would have failed once more.

A torn meniscus was threatening to be my baseball ending injury. That is the moment I knew this belief was my only chance to get back on the field. Many people would have reacted and done something different in this situation. All I was doing was sitting and listening to the voice in my head saying over and over, “If you want to succeed as much as you want to breathe, then you will be successful.

It wasn’t long before I noticed you using them, and I must say I was really surprised what you could do on them. “Jacqui, Jacqui, come watch me,” you said to me. So off we went to the playground so I could watch you perform various tricks on the trapeze. I captured lots of photos of you hanging upside down, doing flips, and contorting your body into various positions, but the highlight for me was seeing you hanging upside down with no hands on the trapeze.

I wake up the screeching of my alarm clock, prompting me to get out of bed even before the sun begins its day. Outside, the street is silent, but I cannot see far because of the morning fog. I was excited for the day, looking forward to the results of yesterday’s work. In the city of Houston, Texas, vastly different cultures collide.

I stood there in the sandy dirt. My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding. I had a strong grip on the fence that divided up the track where the competitors pass. I wanted to close my eyes when the bell rang, but it was too late. It had just begun.

I have had tough hope once, I had to move to a different state and start to get used to the new place. Moving was hard and took a long time to move everything to our new house. My new house was hard to get used to because it was different and I wasn 't used to it which made it hard to sleep and I had to leave my friends behind and I would have to find new friends. Making new friends was hard because I would be alone until I found new friends and I would have no one to talk to so I would be very quiet. Usually I would always be talking to a friend and I am only social with friends.

Inspired by that moment, I joined a track club and became captivated by the pole vault. The spectacle of flying two stories through the air seemed like the perfect challenge. Despite living in a sport-centric town, no local pole vault coach would teach me at my age. So every week my dad and I drove 2 hours to train at a special club.

As there were ten minutes before the game we kept on doing the drills until I heard my coach announcing the starting lineup. I heard my name being announced so I prepared myself to go to the field. I could already see the trophy as it was in a table. As I walked in the field I could smell the trimmed grass and could hear my teammates say “we got this.”

I pushed myself up onto a wire not even as thick as my finger and balanced on it, grabbing a rope that hung from above. On this part of the course, I had to work my way across the wire only using the six ropes dangling above me. This part was mentally challenging for me because I was looking down at the ground the whole time, which scared me, and I wasn 't very dependent on my harness, so I took each step as if I made one wrong step, I would

My opponent dropped to the ground, knocked out cold. In the end, I felt victorious as if I had the world in my hands. I learned to overcome my fear, and pain from hard work, dedication, training, being knocked down, and also listening to my inner voice; but in the end it was all worth the time and effort since what did not kill me, only made me

This project was different from the past movement experiences since I had to construct dance movements without professional assistance. Since I wanted to perform a song and a style of dance out of my element, this assignment seemed impossible to create. To gain inspiration, I diligently listened to the song ten times. On the ten time, I believed I had an epiphany to the direction I wanted this project’s choreography. Luckily, I have performed in various dance recitals, so most of the dances were fresh on my mind.