May 27, 2017

All of my life I have dreamt of my wedding day and my future husband. I imagined the color scheme, the venue, the dress, the bridesmaids, the cake, and the music. The real day was so much better than I could have ever imagined!

Almost exactly nine months from the day I became his girlfriend, Andrew proposed. I worked for a hockey team and so he asked me on the ice during intermission at a game. He invited both of our families and worked with my coworkers to set everything up so perfectly. And y’all. The ring that he picked out all by himself was and is so beyond perfect for me.

The wedding planning process was an absolute roller coaster and is another blog entirely so here’s the sum of it. My mom planned my whole wedding and she did an AMAZING job! Every detail was perfect and I never would have planned anything half as beautiful.

After several showers given by those who love us and a bachelor and bachelorette party, the wedding week was finally here! The beginning of that week started with me taking the rest of my belongings to my very soon to be home in Athens with Andrew. We drove together in the same car back to Columbus to get ready for the wedding. Once we got there, it was time to have the final tux fitting and to pick them up. I stayed for it and seeing Andrew in his tux was such an amazing thing. I was going to marry that amazing and handsome man in just a few days. Andrew went with his groomsmen and I went to my parents.

On Thursday of wedding week, my grandmother took me, my sister (matron of honor), my mom, and my niece (flower girl) to get our nails done. I was SO starting the feel the nerves. I felt jittery and electric. The next day we loaded everything up and headed to our venue, The Grand Magnolia House. We started decorating and unloading and prepping. The rehearsal was great and went off without a hitch and the dinner afterwords was delicious (what I was able to eat anyways, I was too nervous!).

Me and my girls, Paige, Kyndol, Molly, and Quran went to Walmart to get a hotel room feast for the night. We loaded up on the essentials: wine, chocolate, and chips. We watched dumb movies on tv and pigged out while we enjoyed time with each other for the last time as me being a single woman.

I wake up and THIS IS IT!!! It’s wedding day! I was so nervous that I absolutely couldn’t eat anything for breakfast. Fast forward and we are at the venue. And locked out too! We started hair and makeup outside on the porch with the nice summer breeze. While others were getting dolled up, me and Molly went to town so I could get a supplement shake because I was STARVING!!! We finally found boost shakes at a dollar general market. I got the chocolate kind and I was finally ready to sit down to get my hair done.

As I got my hair done I drank my boost and tried to relax but it wasn’t easy. I waited to get my make up done while everyone else got their hair done and the moment that stands out the most to me was jamming to Dixie Chicks with Molly for a little while.

More people started to show up to get ready and I entertained the other guests that were with us girls while we got ready. It was a very chill day outwardly. Everyone says that I was very calm, cool, and collected and I handled the day with grace. As I was getting my makeup done my incredible photographer, Mandi O’Connor arrived. She was able to capture a moment of me reading a note that my daddy wrote to me.

It was finally time to put the dress on and get the ball rolling!

I felt like Scarlet O’Hara getting laced up for a party at Twelve Oaks. The reality of the day was sinking in so much and I was freaking out. I wasn’t prepared to feel that way and was worried that I was crazy for feeling so nervous. I wasn’t nervous about the marriage or the man but I was nervous.

Once the dress and the veil were secured, we started our formal pictures with my parents and my girls.

Almost as soon as the pictures were done, the wedding coordinator, Tamara, started rounding everyone up because it was show time. I thought I was nervous before but nothing compared to that moment. My grandparents, mom, and my girls all walked out to line up and it was just me and my dad waiting for our turn. My heart felt like it was going to pound straight out of my chest. Me and my dad walked around the house instead of down the main staircase like everyone else because I was worried I would fall down the stairs in my dress. We were given our que once my music started.

Walking down the aisle in that dress was difficult. The front of the dress started tucking under my feet while I was walking and the the great ball of tulle that was my dress was getting stuck between my legs as I walked. I started trying to walk like a toy soldier. Picture this: my legs stuck together as close as I can get them and kicking my legs out one in front of the other. Thank goodness the dress was covering all of that. It was also so crazy because the beautiful piano and violin rendition of I’ll Be by Edwin McCain that I walked to wasn’t even registered in my brain. Honestly, if I hadn’t picked the song I walked down the aisle to I wouldn’t be able to tell you today what it was. They only thing I could think of was 1. Not falling down 2. Not ripping my dress 3. HOLY CRAP EVERYONE IS STARING AT ME and 4. This is it, the day I’ve always dreamt of!

I know it sounds so cliche but as soon as I saw and locked eyes with Andrew, I wasn’t nervous anymore. All of my worries from earlier melted away. And it was even better because he teared up which he never does.

As soon as the ceremony started, the ring bearer Beau started calling Andrews name to try to get his attention. It was the funniest thing ever. He ended up sitting with his parents for the rest of the ceremony. I also heard someone basically sobbing; that turned out to be my sister-in-law! After our former youth pastor did the whole, “Who gives this woman?..” part my dad switched with him and did the rest of the ceremony.

As we said our vows and exchanged our rings, I definitely teared up but I held it together! Instead of a unity candle, we did a unity braid as something we could keep as a symbol of our relationship together with Christ. My family friend Aunt Lynn explained to our guests and my dad and my moms best friend sang “Gentle Shepard” as we braided our chords.

And my head was so full of everything else going on that I actually forgot how to braid something. Talk about embarrassing… But it got braided and all was well. Finally, after all that was said and done we were announced man and wife and Andrew got to kiss his bride, Me!!

And yes it was kind of weird kissing with my dad as the preacher but he made sure we knew to keep it short. He said, “And now remembering that there are children present and that I am her daddy, you may now kiss the bride.” It definitely got a few chuckles. I 100% expected it though because he’s my dad and he said the same thing at my sisters wedding a few years earlier.

We took pictures with the bridal party and with our families and Mandi was so great and mindful of our time as well as our guests.

As soon as we were done the reception began and I could actually eat! Our caterer, Cindy, had prepared a special dish of poppy seed chicken just for me since we chose roasted chicken as something everyone was guaranteed to like. That was the best poppy seed chicken I had ever eaten! When we were done, Andrew and I mingled with our dining guests.

Finally we got to cut the cake! I picked fresh strawberry with homemade buttercream and it didn’t disappoint. I’m honestly ready to eat more on our anniversary.

We drank from our fancy flutes.

And fed each other ice cream sandwiches instead of grooms cake because Andrew loves ice cream.

I tossed my bouquet.

Andrew tosses the garter.

And then the dances began. Andrew and I danced to a cover of Love me Tender, the version that is in Princess Diaries 2. And that first dance was more magical than I could have ever dreamed because of the man I married.

I danced with my dad to Sunshine of my Life. I didn’t want anything too serious because I didn’t want to cry all of my makeup off.

Andrew danced with his mom to My Wish.

And Andrew danced with his step mom. She picked out the song and it was a secret to literally everyone except her and the DJ. The music started and it was Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. Their dance got everybody going!

And finally we got the real party started! My favorite hits of the night were any and all Bruno Mars and Hold On by Wilson Phillips.

We all danced away into the night and some of us with just a little liquid courage.

During the dancing our photographer pulled us away for some incredible couples shots in front of the house. That was such a wonderful time because it was the first quiet and sort of alone time that me and Andrew were able to spend after becoming husband and wife.

We rejoined the party but then I remembered the ultimate reason I picked this venue: the gazebo! Ever since A Cinderella Story with Hillary Duff came out, I wanted a wedding just like the scene from her homecoming dance…

Which is one reason I picked a full tulle ball gown and walked down the aisle to I’ll Be. Here’s my Cinderella Story take:

The venue also had a swing in a tree so of course I was able to draw inspiration from the live action Cinderella when she was in the secret garden with Prince Charming. Here’s that shot compared to mine:

I’d say that both are pretty good and I truly felt like Cinderella at the ball with her Prince Charming.

The crowd thinned as the party rolled on but then it was finally time to start the wedding night 😉 And that won’t be making it into the blog. But we had a sparkler exit

And when we left, we really left. We were so tired and so hungry and so happy and filled with joy. The entire day was such a whirlwind. We didn’t notice the music, the people that didn’t show up, the cake, or the center pieces on the table. I wish I could go back and soak it all in but I know it would still be so crazy that I wouldn’t have time to notice everything. Thankfully we had an amazing photographer who captured all the small details for us.

Almost a year later and I would make the same decision a million times over. Andrew is the most loving, hard working, and kind man that I know. I thank God everyday for him and for a fairytale wedding. ❤️

Personal Histories

I haven’t written a blog post in months but today I decided I wanted to start writing down family history stories that have been told to me.

The stories of our past influence us in so many ways. To learn about family connections to historical times or moments is incredible because it makes history seem like it’s not so far away. And our history makes us who we are so why not remember and celebrate it?

The first story I want to tell you about is about my great-grandfather, Earl Carlos Miller. To my daddy and my siblings he was known as Granddaddy. I had the pleasure of knowing Granddaddy for almost 10 years. He was a sweet old man who would sing to me from the kitchen door as we arrived and left their house. When he died, it was the first real loss I had experienced and now over 10 years later, I’m still learning about his life and how incredible he was beyond just being our sweet old Granddaddy.

So here’s the short story. Earl was in the military during WWII. He fought in the European theatre during the height of the war that was raging there. He was in England for some time and later he was apart of one of the most infamous battles of that war; The Battle of the Bulge. The Battle of the Bulge was a push back and almost a last ditch effort of the German forces after the allied troops made their way into Europe from the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. This battle is infamous for being a battle that look the lives of approximately 19,000 Americans and it left many more wounded, captured, or missing. Earl was one of the lucky Americans that got to see the end of that battle.

During the Battle of the Bulge, Earl was up a pole running telecommunication lines for the allied forces. The entire time he was up there, he faced heavy gunfire. Bullet after bullet flew by him but he was never hit. He did suffer from some shell shock from that particular insistence though.

That’s the story. But how cool is that? That so many years later, I have a personal connection to the Battle of the Bulge. I have a personal connection the WWII and America’s victory. What a treasure to have!

What family stories do you have? Have you written them down? If you want, feel free to comment your story because I love hearing about your histories!

To end this post, here’s a picture of Earl and the letter he wrote on it to his sweetheart, my great-grandmother, Gladys.

College Drop Out Pt. 2

For anyone who actually ready part 1, here is part 2! I would like to go ahead and reiterate that this blog is not for me to sound like a victim or to earn your sympathy; I just want to share my perspective and my experience in the hopes of getting past these experiences for myself. To this part 2, I would also like to add:

We left off with me barely making it through block 1. So after that horrible experience, I was 100% determined to do everything in my power to make block 2 a better experience. As soon as I was able to find out which textbooks I needed, I bought them. I literally had all of my textbooks like 2 weeks before class had started. I bought new binders, subject dividers, pens, markers, my own printer, and even my own laminator. I had everything set up in my own little teacher media station in my room that was pretty cool. I was overly prepared for anything that would be thrown at me.

The main classes that we had were teaching writing, social studies in literature, and curriculum. Our first weeks of classes went so well. I liked every single professor and each subject. I felt that through their instruction I was able to grow so much as a future educator and I was beyond excited to meet my new cooperating teacher and my new students. Through the first couple of weeks, all of my assignments were pretty good; I was maintaining an A-B in all of my classes.

All of a sudden (that line is only being used for dramatic effect), we were assigned a MASSIVE assignment. This thing was typically over 100 pages when it was completed and it was called a Theme Plan. What the heck is that you ask… well it is a plan that you create full of project based learning learning segments. It includes a theme (duh), 7 main points off of the theme, sooooo much research on your theme, an introduction/justification, tons of projects with formative and summative assessments in each, an assessment plan, and a lot of cited sources. Pretty sure i’m missing a component in there somewhere but it was the biggest assignment I ever had to do. Thankfully, we didn’t have to do this massive assignment on our own because during block 2 we were assigned a co-teacher. Our co-teacher was another student in our classes that we would learn to teach alongside of in the same classroom. We would have the same cooperating teacher and the same students.

We were also given our classroom placements before we were to begin with our theme plans. My co-teacher and I were assigned to the 5th grade social studies teacher at the school. Mrs. Marino is one of the best teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with and I am so grateful that I spent a semester in her classroom. Since the 5th grade was departmentalized, that meant that we would have over 100 5th grade students and we would teach the same lessons 4 different times in 1 day. The thought of that was overwhelming but I was so excited to dive in to the theme plan because social studies is my favorite subject! As soon as I was able to, I met with Mrs. Marino to discuss what the students would be learning during the time that we would be in the classroom; she was excited to meet with me and we hit it off immediately! After discussing the standards and what she had mapped out, we would be working on developing a WWII theme plan. This could not have been the most perfect situation, I loved social studies and WWII was my favorite eras of history to study! Mrs. Marino gave me a lot of great tips and starts as well as a lot of great sources that we would be able to cite in our theme plan.

A few weeks down the road, my co-teacher and I had a pretty great theme plan coming together. Our projects were good to go and we were excited to have it all put together. We both worked really hard on the parts we had divided between ourselves. As we were coming up on due date we both finished the final touches and then the day before and day of the due date I began the final steps of merging my part and my co-teachers part. In the final hour of this assignment, I was working diligently to ensure that all work was compiled and completed properly when all of a sudden, my computer restarted without warning. You want to talk about being in a panic. I don’t think I have ever felt so awful and hopeless than when my screen just went blank. At the time I had microsoft cloud installed on my phone so I scrambled to open it and try to complete our document there but when I opened the document, only a portion of the work was there. It took my computer about 10 long minutes to come back up. When I logged back in and pulled up the document, still only a portion of the work was there. I felt like I could have puked. I rushed to make sure my co-teachers full work was added back into the document and I added back as much of mine as I could but unfortunately I ran out of time. It 11:59 and the assignment was due. Me and my co-teacher turned in what we had. And just so you know, I was communicating with my co-teacher throughout this entire ordeal, it wasn’t like I kept her in the dark to the situation. And no I didn’t contact my professor because all other professors I have ever had in college have been very clear that if there is a technical issue within 24 hours of the due date, that they didn’t want to hear it because it should have been submitted already.

So the next day, I am nervous. I felt horrible because of what happened and I didn’t want to hurt my co-teacher so I was planning on talking to my professor to try to sort out the situation. Unfortunately I was beat to speaking with our professor and me and my co-teacher were both pulled out of our classroom to have a talk with her. When it came down to it, my co-teacher had the choice of working by herself for the remainder of the semester or continuing to work with me. If she had chosen to work completely alone, I would have had no choice in the matter and I would have been assigned to a new class with a new teacher and new students for the semester. When I was told this I was devastated; I felt like that fifth grade classroom was made for me. My co-teacher was kind enough to allow me to continue to collaborate with her in the classroom but it was decided that all other assignments would be done completely separate. It was then also decided in regards to the theme plan that my co-teacher would be given the opportunity to fill in the missing pieces and to make revisions in order to improve her grade but I would just be stuck with a failing grade.

After this meeting I had to have a secondary meeting with my professor to sign a contract. This contract was stating that I had an attitude and I displayed unprofessional behavior as well as that I made excuses. The examples used were that I dropped, or threw as my professor described it, a pen in frustration during a lesson plan workshop (which was just the students of block 2), that I spoke ill of others which I admit I was in fault in that area, and then finally that I turned in an assignment late with the excuse that cougarview wasn’t working. On the last instance, I was screaming internally to myself because I turned the assignment in on time via email because cougarview wouldn’t let me upload any files; I also made sure to communicate that with my professor in the email and in person that morning. For months at the end of block 2 I just felt like I was under immense scrutiny that just wasn’t warranted.

At the end of the semester our video analysis was due. I hated watching myself teach. When we received our grades and feedback, I was given less than 24 hours for revisions and did not make the cut off. Since I failed the final assignment, I ended up failing the class.

I retook the class and was determined to do better. I was professional all the time. I was on top of the theme plan and I felt good about how I was doing. But then we got revisions back and I made less with a completed theme plan than I had the previous semester with an incomplete one. When I saw that, I broke down on tears. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t know how to revise it to make it better and I was completely at a loss at that point. I continued with the semester but I “changed my major”.

At the end it seemed that my professor was no longer interested in my grade and so I felt if they weren’t, then I wasn’t going to overwork myself to complete my very last assignment so I didn’t turn it in. Even if I had turned it in, my fate was sealed the minute that turned in that second go around theme plan. I was officially a teachers ed flunky.

I never thought I would flunk out of anything but I did. From the time I entered college, I was so sure I wanted to be a teacher but now that’s something I’m not able to pursue anymore. The truth is that now I’m not so sure what I want to do with my life so I’m not in school and I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back. Day by day I try to be okay with not knowing and for not having a degree but some days are just hard. When my former classmates graduated in December I felt so bitter. I should have been up there with them but I wasn’t. Seeing them get awesome teaching jobs is hard because that will never be a part of my life. But all I can do is take it day by day and be grateful for what I have.

College Drop Out Part 1

This blog is going to be a little difficult to write. Ever since May I have been personally struggling with my educational status but I feel like if I just put it all out there, I will feel better about where I am in life.

So as you may have gathered from the title, I am currently a college drop out. I never in a million years thought that would be me. Ever since high school I wanted to be the first kid in the family to go to college and complete my degree. Now at that time I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but I did know I wanted that overpriced piece of paper. By the time I applied to my college I decided I wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

I entered my first semester of college in August 2013. I was not used to pacing myself throughout the day and the week and I really slacked off when I shouldn’t have during my whole freshman year. I did better during my second semester than I did during my first semester but my GPA was barely above a 2.0 at the start of fall 2014. I was so mortified that I had done so poorly. Until fall 2013 I had NEVER failed an entire class that I had to retake. I was so embarrassed that I didn’t even tell my parents, I just registered for the classes I failed and tried again the next semester.

Finally after my “buffer” year, I actually got serious about school. I signed myself up for 19 credit hours, and for anyone that doesn’t  know anything about school… Yes, that is a lot to take in college. The normal amount taken is usually between 12 and 15 hours. Anyways I took 7 classes: Sociology, English 1102, Chem 1, Chem 1 Lab, American Government, Education 2120, and Education 2130.

Now two of these classes were retakes; It was my second time attempting Education 2130 and my third time attempting 2120. Yep, you read that right: it was my third semester in a row taking Education 2120 because I failed it two times in a row. Like I said before I was pretty embarrassed so I kept it on the DL. The worst part of it all is that the classes I was retaking were the only classes I had so far that were related to my major. Like really, GET IT TOGETHER CAROL!

Now I do have to defend myself at this point with the second attempt of Education 2120; during Spring semester 2013 I became a live in nanny for two beautiful little girls but it did make that class and only that class difficult to attend. And yes I know what you’re thinking: “Just get a babysitter!” or “Why didn’t you just bring them to class with you?” Let me just tell you that I did get a babysitter if they were available but this was in the middle of the day on Tuesdays and babysitters were hard to come by and on the second point, trust me those girls were wild and free spirits and there was no way they would be contained for 2 1/2 hours during that class. Okay, back to the defense. Due to my circumstances changing mid semester by becoming a nanny, I tried multiple times to contact my professor to explain the situation and to see if there was anything I could do to make up for the lack of my presence in the class. I never got a response from that professor and I was just out of luck when it came to that one. As for Education 2130 the only defense I can offer is that it was my very first fully online class and remembering to log on and remembering due dates by myself just wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

Back to the story. So this really crazy 19 hour semester was somehow a success. I made an A in every class except sociology where I made a B and at that point in the semester with that class, it felt as good as an A. So after this semester I was kinda back on track for getting into Teachers Ed (especially since I passed my major related classes) and I took on more classes than normal. The next two semesters went just as well. I still took on heavy loads each semester to make sure that I stayed on track for graduation. I took two sciences when my advisor said I shouldn’t burden myself, I had it all down and I did everything relatively well in that final stretch before teachers ed.

Finally towards the end of Fall 2015 semester I was able to apply for Teachers Ed and I was accepted into that program. That was one of the greatest feelings in the world. I had made it into the program, I was going to learn to be a teacher, I was going to graduate in two years, and I was going to be a teacher. Yall. I wish I could go back to that day and remember the sense of pure joy and accomplishment I felt.

Going into the Spring 2016 semester was literally the most nerve wrecking thing I had ever experienced up to that point in my life. The people I would be in class with were the people I would be with for the next two years as we became teachers. These classes that I was taking were make or break and everyone that I knew who had already been through the program said it was super hard and there was one specific professor that you did not want on your bad side. Well that particular professor was the first professor that we would meet that semester. For the sake of this blog we well call them Professor Grey. Professor Grey seemed very nice on our first day but you could tell by a certain look in her eye that she was indeed just as intimidating as everyone said she was. That would make this class and semester an interesting one for me. Anyway, our other professors were really cool and we all liked the right away. Everyday we were all together from Teaching Children to Read, Phys Ed, Math, Creative Activities, all the way to Tech 21. The most taxing classes were teaching children to read and creative activities because those were practicum classes. We had to learn how to write lesson plans and that was one of the most difficult things.

So the first part of the semester went relatively well. The assignments were good, I was good with all of the professors, and everything was pretty good. The next part is where things got really sticky. We had to start our placements with our cooperating teachers. I was placed in a 3rd grade classroom. From the first day, I thought I would really get it along with my cooperating teacher because she was obsessed with Harry Potter just like I was and she was into another hobby like I was but that I won’t mention so her identity stays kinda anonymous. So based on that from my first day I really thought it was going to be a great semester. Well it turned out to not be so great because on the first day of CRCT I had no clue what to do. I was a moron and decided not to go to the school at all because if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to spend any time with my teacher or my students and I could have sworn that Professor Grey told us that our hours did not count if we were not with students or our teachers. No one told me what I should be doing during testing so I wasn’t going up there to spend three hours in the library doing literally nothing. But that was obviously the wrong decision and the wrong perspective to have because I got in SO much trouble for it. And before you get too far with the thought, “Well why didn’t you ask what you were supposed to do?” let me just say that I did; I asked Professor Grey and my cooperating teacher at least twice and neither told me what I was supposed to do, they each told me to ask the other because they didn’t know.

After the first testing day fiasco, I had to have a meeting with Professor Grey. That was probably worse than the feeling of failing a class. She said to me that she was very disappointed in my performance in my placement and that from the beginning of the semester she had expected so much more from me. She told me that I had already missed my allotted amount of time for the semester and I would fail if I missed another day. She called me highly unprofessional; which let me just say that I had never done any of that before and at the time I was doing all I knew to do to be professional. After saying all of that and tearing me down pretty low, Professor Grey asked if I was sure that I really wanted to be a teacher. That question hurt really bad because there was nothing more that I wanted.

I tried to move on and I tried to be as professional as possible after that meeting. I didn’t miss another day. I taught every single lesson that we were supposed to teach which is more than some others can say. I did all that I had to do to make it through to the end of the semester. Of course there was another stumbling block which was my cooperating teacher. Turns out that she was really good friends with Professor Grey and I found out that they were talking about me via email. Yall. What the what?! I taught my lessons, I took critiques from my cooperating teacher. I did the best I knew how to do at the time. So luckily I was able to make it to the end and then on the last day of the semester, I got roasted by Professor Grey again. I had to print out a TON of stuff to put in my portfolio that was due that day. I had to compete for the school printers with everyone else that was printing stuff out for their last classes as well. Well I forgot to get a book that I needed for class so after printing everything out for class I had to run back to my car and then haul off to class. I was about 5 minutes late to class. A hopeful future professor was up giving a mock lesson to us when I walked in so I technically didn’t miss anything. As I was sitting listening to this mock lesson, two of my classmates walk in 30 minutes late. After the presentation my professor came by and collected out literature circle assignments and she stopped at me and said that she needed to speak to me after class. I knew I had done something awful then. We all had to go to her car to put our portfolios in her car. I was the last one as I knew she wanted to talk. As I approached her and her vehicle, she asked me why I was late and I was honest with her and she told me that she had told me that I wasn’t allowed to miss anymore at all (missing is not the same as being late in my book so I didn’t know that she meant I couldn’t be late either.) and then she told me that I would have to sign a contract to go into block 2. As I placed my portfolio into her trunk, she took a tone with me and asked “Do you even have everything you need in that portfolio?” It took every ounce of strength and patience I had to not be rude to her when she said that to me. Instead, I cried on my entire trek across campus to my second class for the day.

Somehow I managed to pass Professor Grey’s class by the skin of my teeth with a C. Every other class was good to go. I never heard from Grey about signing a contract so I was ready to go into block 2 with a clean slate.

Thanks for reading part 1. I’ll bring part 2 to yall in a couple of days. And let me just also say that this is not a blog of my playing the victim. This is just what I personally experienced and how it all made me feel at that time. And looking back now I wish there were things I could have done differently but hindsight is 20/20.

 

The Hulk

This is a short story I wrote during my sophomore year of college. It’s one of my favorite pieces! I hope you all enjoy!

All of my life I have been short. Always the shortest in my classes and always at the front of the line. The only time being short ever really sucks is when you can’t reach something and when you aren’t tall enough to participate in something. I had to sit out many times at the fair and at amusement parks. All I ever wanted to do when I was little was ride the big rides but even standing on my tip toes I was too short so I would just have to wait. Thankfully waiting wouldn’t be that hard to do as I did not go to amusement parks that often.

At the middle school that I went to, there was this thing called the ACT club. To this day I’m still not really sure what exactly it was established for because all you do is pay twenty bucks to get into it and then throughout the year you go on mini “educational” trips to places like the aquarium and the Fox Theater. But as most of us in the 7th and 8th grade did, I paid the fee to be a part of it. I wasn’t in it for all of the little trips though. I was in the ACT club for the week long, out of state trip that took place at the beginning of May every school year. And I was lucky enough that in my first year of being in the ACT club was the year that they were going to Orlando, Florida. Only $500 and a school year stood in my way of Epcot, Islands of Adventure, and Sea World.

The day we got to Orlando we went to straight to Epcot for the “educational” part of the trip. The whole trip was exciting but the second day was my day. The first full day in Orlando, Florida meant a full day at Islands of Adventures. Guess how many “big” rides they have there. At least 5, 3 of those being steel roller coasters. The morning of my day I bubbled with excitement and honestly a little bit of nervousness. I was so excited that I couldn’t even focus long enough to eat breakfast, the only think I could keep down was yellow vitamin water.

When we finally got to the park, all of the hustle and bustle of shops and restaurants that you have to walk by distracted me, at least for a little while. But as the shops disappeared a giant, green, steel beast rose up from the ground and reached towards the clouds. It was one of the most glorious things I have ever laid eyes on. The sight and sound of it made my heart pound and feeling the rush of wind it created just by standing near it made my stomach flutter. This angry green giant being the first ride inside the park, it only made sense to ride it first.

My friends and I got in line and it wasn’t as long as I expected it to be, or wanted it to be. Before I could even blink I was in the shoot to get on next. As I sat down in the green seat of this enormous beast, it was like I could feel the power and wrath it was about to unleash on me and I was scarred witless. My mouth was dry, I could feel and hear my heartbeat, and my stomach didn’t know if it wanted to go up or down. I questioned myself as to why I was even strapping myself into this thing. The thoughts going through my mind were:

Why am I still sitting here?!

Should I get off?

This thing cannot be safe!

I am about to be hurdled upside down.

I think I’ve gone crazy!

I’m gonna get off now, there’s no way I’m doing this.

As soon as I thought of getting off, I had to push that thought out of my mind because the train began moving forward.

I breathe hard and stare up ahead at the small patch of blue sky that I can see at the end of the purple tunnel that encases me. As I stare, I realize that the track looks odd at the top of the incline. No, it doesn’t look odd; it’s a corkscrew. Excuse me but WHAT?! And as the ride sets up for the transformation of Bruce Banner into the Hulk, red warning lights flash and a voice screams that we have been contaminated with Gamma radiation. And then the train is shot forward into the corkscrew like a rocket. I can feel the hair whip against my face and the warm summer air caresses me with every turn of the track. My stomach leaps up and down as the Hulk smashes its way through its predetermined path. After loops and corkscrews and speed, we suddenly come to a stop and just like that the ride is over. I’m addicted to the adrenaline of roller coasters. I’m a big kid now and there is no turning back.