My Ascent Into 8th Grade Stardom :: essays research papers

My Ascent into 8th Grade StardomIt was very hard moving to a new town in the summer of 1994. This event meant having to attend a new middle school and reestablish myself in a new environment. Even though I had moved about every two years of my entire life, that did not make this time any easier. I still had to make new friends and ground myself all over again.Middle School, like most other middle schools, had an "in" crowd. At Crossroads, it was mainly the football players. After I started school at Crossroads, football tryouts were being staged. I saw this as a most significant event on my path through adolescence, a chance to get recognized by my new school, as well as a chance to make some friends and gain some glory along the way. Getting up at one Saturday morning and going up to the school, I was very nervous about whether I would make the team or not. I've always had athletic ability, but since this was a new town, I was unsure about how my skills would compare with the other kids. Football tryout was a grueling event. When tryouts started, it was explained to all of us that the coaches would run drills in order to gauge our skills, and then place us in specific position groups. After the drills, which I did exceptionally well in , Coach Jones placed me in the running back group. He told me that I was extremely strong and fast, and that I would make a good tailback. It felt so good, not only making the team, but being singled out by Coach Jones as possibly one of the better players on the squad.Throughout the next couple of weeks, the Crossroads Vikings held football practice every day after school from 2:45 until 5:00. We always started with some team stretching and then we moved onto our positional drills. We running backs always had drills such as running through ropes and practicing plays. It was fun. As the days and practices went by, I made many new friends. All the starters, me being the starting tailback, just began to hang out together, in and out of school. That is just the way it went. Chad, Rick, Bill, Derek, Ben, and I were hanging out together all the time. Eventually, they introduced to me to all the "cool" kids in school and the feeling of being the "new kid" went away.