DTF

When I was 13 years old my parents got divorced. It was a hard time in my life because I wasn’t sure whose side to be on, and if I chose the wrong side I was scared one of my parents would hate me .So I quickly learned that its best if I just stay out of it. So while my parents did their thing and fought for years I just minded my own business, and over time the fighting dissolved and there divorce was settled. A couple years later my mom found a new guy who just happened to live in new york .He would later propose to my mom she said yes. But the one downside of there little plan was that my mom wanted to move the family being me my sis and my dog to new york to live with my new step dad. At first I apposed the idea, I did not like that I would be leaving all my friends and family behind and had to start fresh. But my mom sat me down and convinced me that it was best for our family.so about six months later we packed up and headed to New York. I got here in the middle of the summer so there was nobody here for 2 months the place was dead all the kids my age had left to camp. So to occupy my time I went to the gym and played a lot of ball. Finally that dreadful day came about, the first day of school. When I went through those doors I was shitting my pants every possible scenario that could play out that day was running through my head. I was convinced that it would be terrible an id hate my new school. But to my surprise I actually loved it and everything about it. It was great people were nice school was a joke and I could just do my own thing .Now when I look back at this turning point in my life it was definitely a positive .I think it was best for my family and it allowed me to grow my horizons, I met people and went places I never thought id ever get to see or meet. So when all is said and done change is good in my opinion, m I know people have a strong fear and are unable to adapt to change, all im saying is give it a chance because it can work out for the best.

In the ninth grade I tried out for my school’s JV softball team.  After 3 long days of try-outs, I made the team!  I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait until the first day of practice!  The first day of practice was on a cold March day.  The field was still hard and rocky from the winter.  I didn’t think my coach would have us do anything but the basics since it was the first day, but I was wrong.  About an hour into practice she tell all the girls to line up at 1st base.  One by one, each girl ran and slide into second.  I have never been good at sliding.  I always was always hesitant when it came to sliding.  By the time it was my turn I had all ready thought of every excuse to get out of sliding, but I figured as a new freshman on the team I had to go through with it.  And I did.  I ran and awkwardly slid into second base.  The entire team cracked up and the coach gave me a confused look.  You would never be able to tell I had played softball my entire life.  The coach told me to try it again.  Now i was afraid, but once again i didn’t want to chicken out.  So I started running and went I felt close enough to the bag I went into the slide.  That’s when I heard my leg crack.  I knew i broke it but didn’t want to believe it.  My coach told me to get up and walk it off, but I couldn’t get up.  I couldn’t move.  I broke my fibula in two places and was in a cast for a month, then P.T for another month after that.  I missed the entire season!  Looking back on that day, I should’ve trusted my gut.  If I would’ve told my coach from the start I wasn’t comfortable sliding it would’ve saved me 2 months as the freshman on crutches in the halls of my high school.

A tradition that I had in high school on Saint Patrick’s Day was that all the seniors would go to the city for the parade. Obviously it wasn’t what the school had wanted, but what could they have done. During my senior year, the school got a new assistant principal, Dr. Kraus. All the seniors received numerous threats from Dr. Kraus and others about ditching school and going to the parade. They had the same routine every year, and we weren’t going to stop the tradition for a threat we receive every year. For pre-cautionary reasons, all the seniors decided to go to the Little Neck station instead of the Great Neck one. So as the day came, everyone went to the Little Neck station. Unfortunately, my friends and I were slightly late and missed the train by a few seconds. As we got out of the car and ran towards the train, the train left right there. As we all turned around to go back to our cars, Dr. Kraus is standing behind us. None of us knew what to say, we just stood there speechless. After speaking to us for a few seconds, Dr. Kraus left and returned to school. He didn’t tell us go back to school or anything like that; he just asked, “Are you supposed to be here right now?” and left. Still stunned at what just occurred, we decided to return to school. Already missing half of the day, we decide to go to Dr. Kraus’ office. He tells us to come to school early the next morning. The next day, we go to Dr. Kraus’ office early in the morning. He had a long and serious talk with each of us individually, and then as a group. He even threated to suspend all of us for a week if we didn’t tell him who went to the city. None of us answered, thankfully he was bluffing. After dismissing all of us, he recalled me into his office. He didn’t necessarily tell me that I was going to be in big trouble, but he just made me feel guilty about what I did. After that whole scenario, I began to take school and life more seriously. Dr. Kraus made me open my eyes and become more mature.

April 5^th of this year was a day in which my entire life changed. I can recall exactly where I was when I heard the news. Throughout high school I had to do something call Christian Service, which is community service with a different name. I was doing Christian Service at my old elementary school when I get a call from my sister. She was crying and couldn’t say much; all she told me was to go to my aunt’s, which was by my old school and where she was. I left the school and as I got to the building I saw her crying harshly and being comforted by one of my old friends. It was then that she told me my grandfather had just had a massive stroke and had died. I stood there in shock, the rest of the day I was just in shock. It wasn’t until later on that night that it hit me and I couldn’t help it. From that day on I had to become a man and learn to care for myself. Both of my parents, including my aunt, left to Dominican Republic the day after. It was just me, my sister, and my cousin staying at my aunt’s house alone. For a week and a half it was just us living alone on what my parents left us. We had family members check in but it was mostly us alone the whole time. That whole experience taught me how to be a man and take care of myself as well as my sister. It was a huge learning experience that will scar me forever but I know I had to learn from it and it made me the man I am today. The worst part of it was hearing my mother’s cry; an adult never wants their child to see them in that state and I witnessed it. Those cries haunted me and gave me the ultimate reality check. I wasn’t a child anymore, I had to learn to tend for myself and not rely on others from there on.

Yarden Benzaken

Many people go through struggles in there life some more serious than others, but one of the hardest times I had to go through in my life is when my parents decided to pick up and move to Israel. I was in 7th grade, which means I was about 13/14 years old, which to me is the hardest point in a girl’s life, being a teenager and all, where she is forced to leave her friends. My parents sat my siblings and I down when they broke out with this new news. It was clear that we were all devastated. I cried for day’s even weeks but after a while I realized that it wasn’t going to do anything. My parents had made up their mind and made a decision, there was no trying to save it.  When we all got to Israel none of us arrived with an open mind. Especially myself. I would ditch school halfway through the day and sometimes just wouldn’t show up at all. My teachers were concerned at my acting out and it was extremely difficult to make friends due to the language difference. I spent a lot of time alone and each day I grew more resentful towards my parents. Bottom line, life was not easy.  However after a few months I figured since this is my life now I better give it a shot. Slowly but surely I picked up on the Israeli language and before I knew it I found my own group of friends. It took time but I finally felt happy again.  And by the look of my families faces I saw that as time went on we were all settling in and we were all feeling like we belonged. All of us that is, except for my mom. It seemed like the more I enjoyed Israel the less she did. She tried to cover up her emotions up with a smile but I saw right through it. I knew something was wrong and it took about 5 months for my parents to sit us down once again to tell us that they have made a decision to move our family. They said because our family wasn’t adjusting here in Israel, they want to move us back to long island NY. If you asked me four months before I would have been ecstatic. But this just wasn’t fair. Finally when I begin to feel comfortable, they want to tear me a way and make me start this whole process over again. But after speaking to my mom and hearing how she felt having my father commute from NY every 2 weeks because he still kept his job there, I understood that it was too hard for her to feel like a single mom raising 4 kids and fulfilling all the responsibilities of our household. So long story short my family moved back to ny, and I had to go through the hard struggles of adjustment all over again. It was a difficult stage in my life but I definitely gained something from it. I believe I am more confident and independent from going through this experience.

I was never the biggest, or the strongest, but I loved the game. I remember, as a kid that was all me and my friends wouuld do. Literally until we couldnt see the ball anymore in the dark. One morning when i was 13, we were playing at a park near my house. It was cold, the dirt was hardened and the ball stung our hands with each reception. It was fourth down and  a long way to go. Ryan imitated Peyton Manning as he yelled HIKE and dropped back to pass. I ran a post route, made my cut, I was wide open. I made the catch with ease. Then I looked up, one man to beat, it was Danny. He was always picked first, he was fast, and strong, and he was heading right at me. I charged full steam ahead, “I got this, I’ll duck right through him.” Unfortuantely, I tripped up and fell straight foreward. The pop was so loud my ear was ringing, his knee had dislocated my shoulder and I was stunned. I sat there shaking, white from fear, in total shock, the pain was immense. I didn’t say a word until the ambulence got there. The EMTs popped my shoulder back with a dirty trick, they pretended they would do it on the count of three. On “two” they wrenched it back into place, i thought i would put my fingers straight through my palm from the fist i was making.  After a few tense minutes of silence on our way to St. Vincent’s Hospital I opened my mouth to speak for the first time since the POP, and I asked, “when can i play again?’

A year ago during my cousin’s graduation, we get a call saying that my grandmother isn’t feeling well. Later on that night I found out that she had experienced a brain hemorrhage and that she was not recovering. After two days in the hospital, my grandmother passed away. My family and I were devastated because it was so unexpected. But the person who I felt suffered the most was my mom. When we found out that my grandmother passed away I didn’t want to cry in front of my mom because I knew it would make her feel worse and I knew I had to be strong for her. Although I was extremely sad I felt that I couldn’t let my mom see me like that because I knew it would make it harder for her.  For the next few months I was always by my mom’s side making sure that she was ok and helping her with whatever she needed. Although this moment in my life was one of the hardest and saddest ever, it matured me and made me stronger because it made me realize that no matter what happens I have to stay strong and get through it.

Monologue

Back when I was a sophomore on my school basketball team I was one of five who had made it the year before. We were a great team the year before and now we were an even better team.  At the first practice of the year I was playing with the other sophomores who were for sure starting so I thought I was good and I would be starting with them. The next practice he switched me from the team with the starters for another kid on the team, who was a freshman. This kid was very good in eighth grade and he was in the middle of  reaching his peak. So came first game of the season he started and I didn’t..I was really pissed but I knew he was better than me so I got over it. Throughout the season I hated going to practices and just sitting on the side doing nothing. So I wanted to quit the team really badly but I decided not to. The last practice of the season was the night before the championship the coach put me on the team against the starting five during the scrimmage and I played very hard and made some good plays. The next day at the game the team wasn’t doing too well and the kid who started instead of me wasn’t able to keep up and was not playing well under pressure. So the coach looked down the bench almost to the end and called me up . I was the first one off the bench to go into the game and I guarded the guy on the other team who was doing very well and he barely scored the rest of the game and we won.

My greatest passion in life is baking. Baking is such a big part of who I am, it’s practically my life.  I was in love with baking as far as I can remember. I was the type of kid that would always be in the kitchen watching my parents or grandparents cook and I was always interested and fascinated when they were cooking. I was taught to cook starting at a young age but my interest grew in baking. No one in my family really bakes so it is a skill I have obtained on my own and I am a self taught baker. Baking is my dream job, and owning my own bakery is my life’s goal.

My family and friends are my inspiration and what keeps me wanting to pursue this career. They inspire me to keep growing as a baker. My mom is my greatest inspiration of my baking career. She never doubted my dreams and always supported my decisions. She has inspired me to share my love through baking. I share my love of baking to my friends by creating special treats for them. Especially birthdays I love giving cakes as a gift because I make each one special for that person.  I’ve made castle cake, giant turtle out of cupcakes, ice cream cake, Aladdin from Disney design all specially designed for them. I put a lot of time and love into my baking and with every bite you can taste the sweetness of love.

Last weekend was my birthday weekend! Of course I had a fun filled day planned with my boyfriend; I wanted to go to Build-A-Bear, Madame Tussauds, and to eat at Benihanas. I planned to go to these places because I wanted to try new things for my birthday! I went to Build-A-Bear and I got this cute tan colored bear that I named Jayden and I dressed him up as Winnie the Pooh! So far so good right? WRONG! From 5^th Ave. I walked to Madame Tussauds and it was kind of suspicious because there were massive amounts of people walking towards my direction and I thought it was some sort of parade! In reality though, it was the protesters from occupy Wall Street and they completely barricaded Times Square. There were so much people and so much police that I could not even walk 1 block. Everyone was smelly too. I was so annoyed! After about a hour thinking that I could find a way around the herd of protesters, I decided to just head to Benihanas: I WAS SO EXCITED! I always wanted to eat there but I never found the occasion to. Walking on 56^thstreet, I did not know what the outside of the place looked like, so I was aimlessly walking up and down the block until I asked for directions and the man told me that Benihanas was being renovated! I was even more annoyed! So I decided to eat at this expensive Shanghainese place, which was so over priced. After I met up with another couple and decided to go to Max Brenner for some desert but it was a 2 and a half hour long wait; instead, the other couple went to eat at this place that served drinks and pasta; it looked so good but I could not eat because I was so full. Their bill came out to be much cheaper so I was obviously jealous!

Although at first I was so mad, I calmed down and I realized that I should be fortunate for the things that did go my way, like getting Jayden, and spending some quality time with my boyfriend and getting a ride back home. Also, even though things did not go as planned, there are always going to be times where I can go to the wax museum and Benihanas, so clearly, I was over reacting, which is what I do a lot.