Creative Nonfiction

The last outside event that I went to was creative nonfiction readings by different students in the Patterson building. The one that stood out the most to me was this guy who read about his experience of living in a small town that was controlled by a strip club. The way he told the story was really funny and he grabbed my attention from the very beginning. He talked about how everyone in the town would end up at the strip club every night and how it was run by a shady old man. I felt with every detail that he listed i was able to visualize the setting and how all the characters were connecting with each other. I have always lived in big cities and the time that I did stay in a smaller city it was probably still bigger than his hometown. All in all his story stood out to me the most because it had a feeling of being fiction, even though it was what he experienced in his life growing up.

word: 176

Otherlands Cafe

I chose to go to the Otherland's Cafe for one of my outside events. They were having graduate students read some of their works. There were two people that were reading that night, Candace Baxter and Michael Adams. I'm not really sure what to say about Candace Baxter and her story, I would like to be nice about it but that seems very unlikely. She completely lost the entire audience while she was reading, because her story kept shifting from one spot to the next. The story just did not make any sense and I realize that I am not a writer or anything. I just feel that if I were to tell a story, I would make sure that the audience could keep up. The next person to read was Michael Adams and his assortment of poems. Honestly, anything would have sounded good after hearing Baxter talk for thirty minutes. I thought it was good that he was able to talk about his hardships like breaking up with friend and wanting to get her back. Adams was able to incorporate many different elements into each one of his poems, which made everyone of them exciting to listen to.

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Leadership

Earlier in the semester my coach pulled me aside and said that he wanted me to attend this leadership workshop. Apparently each coach was supposed to choose a few players from each team who they felt had good leadership qualities. However, I was not supposed to talk about this amongst the team unless it was with those who were also attending the event. My teammates and I went to the Fogelman building where we were treated to a very fancy dinner and dessert before listening to the speaker talk. She started off by telling a story about Josh Pastner who is currently the head coach for our basketball team. When he was a freshman on his basketball team in Arizona, he decided that the system was not correct and it needed to be changed if they wanted to win a national title. The problem is that no one wanted to listen to a rookie who was still wet behind his ears. Pastner kept fighting this opposition and finally reached his peers and sure enough they won a national title that year. I thought the story was really good, and showed that it does not matter if you are a transfer or a new student you can find a way to reach out to your team. Now i think the speaker did a good job, and those who really paid attention will benefit from it. However, despite have great slides and a great story, there are just some individuals who will not go out of their way for others and its sad. I wanted to be different so I came back from this workshop wanting to incorporate new techniques of trying to bring my team closer and hold everyone more accountable including myself. I know I am not on the same level as Josh Pastner but anything is worth a try.

Student Athlete Assembly

For one of my outside events I was somewhat forced to attend a seminar from a speaker named Felicia Hall. The reason that I say that I was forced to attend is because the athletic department sent an e-mail out to all the coaches stating that it was mandatory for players. Normally, I would not be opposed to hearing a success story from a person who knows what it is like to juggle being an athlete and a student. However, I was not a big fan of Ms. Hall's story, maybe it was because I did a million errands that day and the last thing I would have like to do was sit in an auditorium for two hours. I had to be fair though and I listened to the points that she was trying to make. Hall made comments that you have to fight in what you believe in and with superior determination. Also, that you have to be prepared for life once you are off the field or court. I thought she made valid points, but did not think it was an accurate approach for all of her audience. Maybe I just view the world more realistically and no that it is going to take more than just self determination to get the job of good quality. I think Felicia Hall forgot to really reinforce the education concept, because everyone out there in the "Real World" is determined and just because it worked for her does not necessarily mean it will work for everyone else. Now I do understand that she was simply trying to encourage those athletes who never took a moment to reflect on their education and the benefits they can receive from having a college degree. The world is tough sometimes and the paths that we take are not easy strolls. I just wished I could have been touched by her words more.

Crap Cell Phones

I am not of those people that always complains about his cell phone. However, in this last week or so there has been too much complaining from me. I have one of those smart phones and advertisers said it was going to be hassle free. Well apparently they lied to me and all those others with my phone. It has come to the stage where I have just given up on the phone all together and I am not certain of our future together. It was a great run we had together but I believe it time for me to move on and get a less frustrating phone.

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St. Jude Marathon

This past weekend, I went downtown to cheer on all the runners of the St. Jude marathon. Most of my friends or people I knew were participating in either the full or half marathon. It is for a really cause and to see all those runners so proud of themselves when they finish the race is a great sight to see. Some of my teammates went and surprised our coach who had no idea we were coming. He was so excited to see us, I have never seen him that happy and that made all of us feel great for the rest of the day. Next year I hope I can also help St. Jude Hospital by also running the half marathon.

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Exams

We are near the end of the semester and then exam week will be upon us. This is when everyone at the school spends every waking moment at the library trying to cram last minute. I have to admit that I am also one of these crammers, but not by choice. I do not mind have late night study sessions considering I haven't gone to bed before 3 am in 7 nights. At this point my body would think twice before letting me fall asleep before midnight. I am going to be really excited when I get through this next week.

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Family

This was the first time in a long time that my whole family was present on Thanksgiving. Normally I am always absent because I have a tennis tournament during that time and I do not go back now that I am in college because flights are expensive. I have probably been home maybe twice in the last ten years. This was exciting because my brother and I surprised our month and flew her out from California to Nashville. My brother has a house there with his wife and it is not that bad of a drive for me. I could tell my mom was really happy to be around her boys, and I enjoyed getting to spend some time with the family for once. Even though our time together was short, this is a memory I am not willing to forget and truly thankful for.

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Food Coma

Food coma is what I refer to as Thanksgiving, the one day of the year where I eat enough to pass out. i make it a goal of mine to be able to eat all the food i want and then take a few steps over to the couch and hibernate. Luckily, I was not in as bad of shape as my brother who was in pain from eating too much food. I thought it was funny, but did not spend the quality time I wanted laughing at him because I entered "Food Coma". I am sure that everyone has experienced this at least once in their lives and many tend to run away from this but I take pleasure in embracing this wonderful day.

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The B-Up

This is what everyone has been waiting for, the sequel to the blog about "long distance relationships". "B-Up" means break up, meaning that my girlfriend and I are no longer together. First, you need to know that I could possibly be one of the most care free guys around, whereas my ex-girlfriend is far from it, to put it mildly. The break up happened back on Halloween when I went to Birmingham to participate in a tennis tournament. I was expecting a great weekend because I was able to see my girlfriend and celebrate Halloween with her. Initially, things were alright between us, but as the weekend passed by I noticed that she was acting a bit strange and was not being herself. I tried shrugging it off at first, because I thought she was still stressed from all of her exams that week and I wanted to concentrate on my tournament. FAIL! However, somehow we managed to get through two days of us pretending that things were okay. Finally, on the night of Halloween, I decided that it was time for us to talk about why was she was acting so strange. The thing is, I’m notorious for having terrible timing, especially since she just got into her Halloween costume. Imagine how hard it was for me to be completely serious when I was looking at a pink themed cowgirl with two guns in holsters! It was so hard for me not laugh; every time she walked her spurs would click. Now this was our first real fight and my first real break up, so I had no idea what to expect. If only I could have read a handbook on the art of consoling a crying cowgirl. In the end, we decided that it was better for us to be separate. The tournament that I wanted to do well at ended in a DISASTER. All in all, that could have been the most unique weekend of my life.

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Morning Workouts

There are few things in this world that are worse than waking up at the crack of dawn to exercise. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning my team and I have to wake up early to do conditioning and weights. The fall semester is the worse because we do more running in the preseason. However, nothing can explain the feeling I get in my stomach when I wake up in the mornings. Sometimes the feeling in the bottom of my stomach is worse than playing a match. I understand that it is all a part of being a college athlete, but my sleep is the only bit of quality time I have left.

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Morning Workouts

There are few things in this world that are worse than waking up at the crack of dawn to exercise. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning my team and I have to wake up early to do conditioning and weights. The fall semester is the worse because we do more running in the preseason. However, nothing can explain the feeling I get in my stomach when I wake up in the mornings. Sometimes the feeling in the bottom of my stomach is worse than playing a match. I understand that it is all a part of being a college athlete, but my sleep is the only bit of quality time I have left.

Words: 114

Basketball

I am glad that it is basketball season again. It is my favorite sport to watch besides tennis. Especially since my tigers are back in action, even though I know that the expectations of them doing well this year are low. Tiger basketball is the only sport on campus that brings so many people together under one roof screaming their pride. I was a freshman during their championship run with CDR and Rose on the team. It was an incredible atmosphere on campus and around the city. I had never seen so many tiger fans; it was definitely a defining moment for the city, the school, and the players. This season I hope that we can find that same spark we had two years ago and give all of us tiger blue fans a reason to cheer. GO TIGERS!!!

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Elevators

I have a slight frustration when it comes to riding in elevators with other people. The thing that irritates me is how some individuals choose to take the elevator to go up or down one floor. I remember our teacher bringing this up last week and immediately I thought I need to blog on this. It shows that the people who get on the elevator for one floor are extremely lazy. Now, I know how it feels to be lazy, I am just as lazy as the next person, but no one will ever catch me taking the elevator for one floor. Especially, when there are stairs that are clearly visible to the passengers of the elevator. I guess it just bothers me that some people cannot do things as simple as walking up stairs.

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Holidays

It is weird to thing that we are fast approaching Thanksgiving, which can be easily considered the second biggest holiday of the year. Many students will seek salvation away from school in the comforts of their families. Even though the holiday is short and is only given a few days off from school. It still means so much to me just being around all those people who I care about and do not get to see that often. We come back from this short break and continue to grind out more work before exams. Then we relax for an extended vacation to celebrate the biggest holiday of Christmas.

Memphis Football

Well a big story this week has to do with the Head Football coach, Tommy West getting fired. It is tough to say if this was the best decision or not, because I do not think that West is entirely to blame. I will have admit that we have one of the worse athletic administrations in all of college. R.C. Johnson has not done a single thing that has benefited our athletics since hiring John Calapari. However, he continued to fly under the radar hiding behind the success of the basketball team. Well his time is about up, no hall of fame basketball coach and a crap football team. I guess we will have to wait for another firing coming in the future.

American Politics

I want to talk about American politics, because it has to do with my major of Political Science. Normally, I choose to not get into heated debates about what is right and what is wrong. However, recently I was asked to write a paper on the three things I felt were the most important in establishing a better country. The three things I listed were illegal immigration, unemployment, and the national deficit. I think those issues are critical because they affect the citizens the most during this time of depression. It is time for us to find adequate solutions for our problems and we need to start with these.

Halloween

This Saturday begins another American tradition, where kids dress up in costumes and go door to door asking for candy. I never realized how excited people about this time, people start decorating there house at the beginning of October. Most people would say that this is there favorite time of the year, especially foreigners who do not celebrate Halloween in there native countries. I am real excited because it is never to old to dress up for Halloween. When means I only have a couple days left to get a good costume this year, because I had the biggest choke of all time last year. German Soccer Player, I was an idiot!

Good people are out there

After reading O'Conner's story, "A Good man is hard to find", I realized that do not believe that is true. I know so many good people out there, that I would not be able to count them all. I understand where she is coming from, and I am not naive because there are bad people out there. However, I do not go out of my way to seek those type of people. I believe in each and every person until they do something wrong and then you can choose to forgive them and move on. I am not taking anything away from the story, because it was a good short story.

Double Duece

Recently I learned that the bar "Double Duece" was shut down because of underage drinking. I thought this was funny because I'm not sure I know anyone of age that goes there to drink. It is there to be that safe haven for those who are not quite of age on Thursday nights and go there because they allow 18 and over. I understand that it is the law and illegal consumption of alcohol can not be tolerated. However, the good news is that the bar will reopen in the coming weeks. They will probably enforce more rules, and have more security monitoring everyone's actions, but at the end of the day double duece will remain the same.

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