1. D1 bowling offer to St. Francis College
When my parents were younger, they enjoyed playing bowling. As it was a sport they loved, they wanted to teach my brother and me how to play. At the age of 7, my parents put me in lessons where I began to learn the foundations of bowling. I struggled quite a bit and wanted to quit multiple times. I remember crying since my ball would always roll into the gutter. As a competitive person, I hated doing worse than my brother. However, I decided to stick through with it because I wanted to improve my skills so that one day I can beat my brother. As time passed, I became a better bowler. I even got my own bowling ball. I fell in love with the sport and knew it was something I wanted to play competitively. At the start of high school, I wanted to try out for the girl’s varsity bowling team. During the tryouts, I was confident that I would make the team. Everybody was impressed with my skills, especially the coach. I was a starter as a freshman. We won multiple games against other schools and even made it to the playoffs. By my sophomore year, I have announced the captain. I was so proud of how far I’ve come and grateful to have stuck with the sport. I even decided to join a bowling league outside of school. Every Saturday morning, I would go to JibLanes and bowl with other kids who enjoyed the sport as much as I did. Once I step foot in the bowling alley, I couldn’t believe how good they were. I felt as if I didn’t belong since most of them were better than me. Even kids younger than me had better scores than I did. However, the coach was patient with me and helped me perfect my skills. By senior year, with the new things I learned, I tried to guide my team to the playoffs once again. We went undefeated but ultimately lost during the quarterfinals. Regardless, I was proud of my teammates and myself for being able to lead my team. I remember having so much fun and even crying at the end. My coach from the league then introduced me and other fellow female bowlers to the coach of St. Francis college. She wanted to recruit me and offered me a D1 bowling scholarship. I was so surprised that she thought that I could bowl professionally. I didn’t think bowling was something I wanted to do once I was in college, thus declining the offer to pursue my dreams in real estate.
2. Norwegian cruise to Bahamas, Bermuda, Florida
During winter break, my mom planned a vacation since we haven’t been on one in a very long time due to covid. It was a cruise with my mom, my brother, and my boyfriend to the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Florida. Cruising is my favorite type of vacation. It was exciting because it was my first vacation with my boyfriend and his first time on a cruise. We packed our luggage the night before and ended up bringing 4 large suitcases for only 9 days. The first thing we did once we got on the ship was eat in the dining area. I remember the first day of food being terrible since there weren’t many options yet. Afterward, we settled in our room and looked at the daily agenda to see what we were gonna do next. There were a series of activities such as rock climbing, board games, and theater shows. During our days at sea, we decided to occupy ourselves with all the activities. We made 2 friends along the way and hung out with the, whenever we saw them around the ship. We participated in many game shows such as deal or no deal and bingo. My favorite show was these two acrobats who performed amazing tricks. Our first stop was Bermuda where we explored the island shops. We bought many souvenirs and took hundreds of photos. There were all types of jewelry filled with pink sand as Bermuda is known for having gorgeous pink sand beaches. I remember seeing chickens and roosters roaming around the street as it is considered a normal thing there. The weather was beautiful. Our next stop was the Bahamas. We went out to a beach with the clearest and warm water. Something you can’t find out here in New York. We spent hours swimming and collecting sea shells. However, the best day was when we were on their private island. I went snorkeling and paddle boarding. There were small swarms of fish that glisten when the sun shines on them. I remember buying so many piña coladas. It was also my boyfriend’s birthday and we celebrated by going to a steak house on the ship. The food was so delicious. Our last and final stop was Florida. We decided to stay on the ship because there was nothing to do around the port. Rather than seeing palm trees and the tropical waters, we saw a bunch of buildings and murky water. We wished we could go back to the islands.
3. Friendsmas 2021 – all 13 of us got covid
This was my junior year of high school, during the time when covid was still more severe. My friends and I have hung out on multiple occasions since we hated being trapped at home, but we were lucky enough to have not to catch covid. It was winter break and my friend, Sarah, decided to hold a secret Santa at her house. We used this website called Elfster to randomly select the person we needed to get a gift for. I remember one of our friends in the group chat saying he had a sore throat but we didn’t think too much about it. We still asked him to come since we knew it was going to be a fun event. We watched a horror movie, ordered Domino’s pizza, and of course, opened the presents. I ended up getting a cute phone case that I still use to this day. I remember that the boys wanted to wrestle and ended up breaking a wall. We decided to hide it from her parents by putting a large picture over it. We also played the typical games like “never have I ever” or “who’s most likely to.” We shared many laughs and had so much fun. However, the next day, our friend texted in the group chat saying she had covid. Then not even a week later, all of us discovered that we got covid. We ended up not going to school for a whole week. Looking back on it, it was really funny and we continue to do this event annually. Every secret Santa, we talk about what had happened.
Homework
Mimesis
Dear Ellen, I’m way over my head. Do you ever do things you know are wrong, but are somehow also right? I don’t know how to put it in simpler terms than that. I mean, I’m only fifteen and I certainly shouldn’t have boys spending the night in my bedroom. But if a person knows someone needs a place to stay, isn’t it that person’s responsibility as a human to help them? Last night after my parents went to sleep, I snuck out the back door to take Atlas those blankets. I took a flashlight with me because it was dark. It was still snowing really hard, so by the time I made it to that house, I was freezing. I beat on the back door and as soon as he opened it, I pushed past him to get out of the cold. Only…I didn’t get out of the cold. Somehow, it felt even colder inside that old house. I still had my flashlight on and I shined it around the living room and kitchen. There wasn’t anything in there Ellen! No couch, no chair, no mattress. I handed the blankets off to him and kept looking around me. There was a big hole in the roof over the kitchen and wind and snow were just pouring in. When I shined my light around the living room, I saw his stuff in one of the corners. His backpack, plus the backpack I’d given him. There was a little pile of other stuff I’d given him, like some of my dad’s clothes. And then there were two towels on the floor. On I guess he laid on and one he covered up with. I put my hand over my mouth because I was so horrified. He’d been living there like that for weeks! Atlas put his hand on my back and tried to walk me back out the door. “You shouldn’t be over here, Lily,” he said. “You could get in trouble.” That’s when I grabbed his hand and said “You shouldn’t be here, either.”
Bowling has been quite the journey for me. Ever since I was a little girl all the way to the present day. Bowling has allowed me to create many friendships and compete in competitions around New York. I can’t believe how amazing of an experience it was. Now that high school ended, I no longer play competitively, but rather for fun with my family. Occasionally, I would visit the bowling league to see my friends and my coach. It’s always nice to reminisce and play the sport again. The reason I decided to decline the offer was that it was still pricey even with the scholarships given. St. Francis is a private college so that’s probably the reason why it was as expensive as a SUNY university. On the other hand, two of my friends decided to take the offer and I couldn’t be more proud of them and how far they have come. We were practically bowling sisters. I watch them post their adventures on Instagram and a part of me wishes that was me. However, I decided to go to college with my boyfriend and pursue my dreams in the business industry. Right now I have my mind set on commercial real estate, hoping to make a lot of money in the future.
Hormesis
Friendsmas 2022 was a success. Much different than the incident that happened at last year’s friendsmas. Still can’t believe how stupid we were to allow our friend with a sore throat to come to the party. I still was glad that I got covid during that time since I wouldn’t be able to see them at school anyways. All of us stayed home playing video games and cheating our way through homework. Anyways, for 2022, we decided to do a potluck instead of ordering pizza again. We brought dishes from our culture such as spring rolls, dumplings, pasta, kbbq. We basically ate throughout the entire night. When it was time to open presents, everyone got someone the thing that they wanted. I got a skylight that I still use to this day. It makes my room look prettier at night. Other people got things like gym clothes, a blanket, a new wallet, etc. We also take our annual group photo using Sarah’s polaroid. She keeps the photos in a cute box that we hope to fill with many pictures as we continue to meet up.
