Nardone

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**__ Getting Through It __** __ I remember it as if it were yesterday __ (Opener). __All I wanted him to do was turn the car around, step on the gas, and go home__ (Magic 3). But, this wasn’t at all possible because I said the words that screamed death! __I said, “Yeah sure, I’ll do it. It can’t hurt can it?__ (Dialogue)” __Oh, but it did, very, very, very much so It turned out to be the most mortifying humiliating embarrassing moment of my good short young life__ (Repetition for Effect, Magic 3). I was only 10 at the time too, so you can imagine the horror I was experiencing. Aw jeez, it’s all coming back to me now! __I’ll tell you the rest out of the good in my heart, even though there is no good in my heart__ (Humor).
 * By: Catherine Nardone **
 * Orange English **
 * January 11, 2010 **

It stared back when I was doing gymnastics at Palumbo. This was when I was actually doing well in gymnastics and started to excel. My teacher and really distant cousin, Jayda, enlisted me in a competition__. To that I said, “Yeah sure, I’ll do it. It can’t hurt can it__? (Dialogue)” I finally came to the realization that I was signed up for all events. __Meaning I was in advanced bars, floor, vault, and beam. I absolutely dreaded this, the competition thing, the beam and the whole idea of entering into the last legal form of slavery known to man.__ (Magic 3, Humor) __ Over the course of 3-6 weeks I practiced to the sound of the 40’s. my floor routine song was the theme song of the 1940’s. The song that was chosen by the lovely Jayda was Fever, from the 40’s. Hello! We’re not in the 1940’s anymore. It was 2005 __ (Repetition for Effect, Humor).

The days of practice came and didn’t go by as quick as I thought they would. __Coming from my mother’s house all you could hear was music blaring, screams of frustration, and grunting__ (Magic 3). __You could see a shadow of a figure flipping on the walls and floors, sweat dripping from every inch of me onto the rug, skin peeling off my feet and fingers__ (Magic 3). __Music blaring, the scent of sweat, the feeling of the rug slap me in the face whenever I fell, my flesh peeling, flailing ridiculous arms, sweat dripping down my face to the top of my lips where I tasted an ocean__ (Metaphor, Repetition for Effect). __ I arrive for final practice in horror. I arrive and immediately grueling practice starts. I arrive and I’m already sweating __ (Repetition for Effect). I worked myself to the bone, to the point where there was just flesh left to me and I went limp. The practice started with the monster of all events for me. Beam. The reason why I detest beam so much is because its only 4 inches thick; the exact width of my foot, __so one wrong move, and its instant death__ (Hyperbole).

The routine for my wondrous beam routine included a cartwheel, which was extremely difficult__. It was as if a sumo wrester was plopped on my back and I had to do it on a tightrope__ (Simile). Anyway doing a cartwheel is everything but easy__! I didn’t know how I was going to pull it off at competition time__ (Foreshadowing). Doing my beam routine I looked like a complete idiot. I was waving my arms around, I was bending over and squatting __almost falling off the 30 foot high plank of wood__ (Hyperbole) __and I was falling on the smelly, sticky, sweaty mats__ (Magic 3, Alliteration).

Practice at Palumbo went on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on __until I grew a beard__ (Hyperbole). __At one point, my legs fell off and walked away. Well more like tried to limp away. I was on my stomach crawling to get them. I lectured them and told them that it wasn’t very nice to leave their body just like that (snaps!)__ (Humor, Hyperbole, Onomatopoeia, Personification).

As they say practice makes perfect, but I was __far from fame__ here (Alliteration). __There was practice at my mother’s house, practice at my father’s house, and practice at Palumbo__ (Magic 3, Repetition for Effect). All the __practice, time, and effort__ lead up to competition (Magic 3).

The car ride to the recreation center was __absolutely, terribly, horrifyingly__ boring (Magic 3). All there was to look at were __cars, people, trees, people, tress, cars, trees, cars, and people__ (Repetition for Effect).

My stomach flipped more than once as we pulled up to the recreation center in my dad’s car. I groaned, __took a deep breath, tightened my slicked back ponytail, and looked at the building__ (Magic 3). Vare Recreation Center. I was cold, nervous, sweaty, and excited all at once. I moved my __muscles, bones, tissues and tendons__ (Magic 3) to open my door. Reaching for the passenger door handle, I take one last look at my dad before we leave his __shiny, silver, speedy__, Nissan, Maxima (Alliteration, Magic 3). He looks at me with __confidence, contentment, and compassion__ (Alliteration, Magic 3). I turn my body to open the door and __the freezing cold winter air punches me in the stomach__ (Personification). Stepping out of the car, and onto the curb, I look around and eye the building. The steps were ahead of me and I moan and grumble to stumble up them. My father graciously opened the door for me and immediately __the smell of alluring brownies leads me through the halls__ (Personification). I have no clue as to where I might be going until…

“__Oh my gosh! MOLLY! Hey!__ (Dialogue)” My old time gymnastics friend, Molly and I meet up and we greet each other after not seeing one another for __eras upon eras__ (Hyperbole). We both decided to warm up on the floor, and we own it. We go out onto the floor with all the other girls looking at us. __They eyed us up and down as if we were dirt__, but what they didn’t know was we were great (Simile). As I stepped onto the __warm, fuzzy, springy floor, it made me feel powerful and as if I could conquer anything. It shot a bursting tingling feeling through my veins, a rush of energy__ (Magic 3, Personification). __ To my surprise, Jayda and another one of my friends from gymnastics burst into the room, and they start walking slowly, as if it were home __ (Simile). As it turns out, they were there the week before, for the intermediate competition. __But to Molly and I, it was a ghost town, and everyone was looking down on us just because we were from Palumbo__ (Metaphor). __ The announcer took forever to start the competition, but we eventually got there __ (Hyperbole). She was speaking but I wasn’t paying attention, I was aching for the brownies. I was up next, and as I watched the girl before me do her floor routine, I sat in shame. I was never going to do as good as her. But, I kept reassuring myself that it was okay __because I had my music, my outfit, and my moves__ (Magic 3). My name was called and I gave the signal to start. Waiting for my music I stood with a smile plastered over my clammy face. The music starts, and right on cue, so did I. Doing my dance the thoughts running through my head were: __“Smile, don’t forget to smile. Make eye contact with the judges and audience. Look at them! Step in this spot, NO! Not there! Yes, there!__ (Dialogue)” Telling my self to be calm wasn’t included; I don’t know how I ever got through that, thinking about it now. __Finally, the end of my terrible “good show” was over__ (Oxymoron).

The next event was bars. That, thankfully, I skipped. I didn’t know how to do them and I wasn’t going to take a chance to humiliate myself. __But what I didn’t know was there was a chance for me to do that later__ (Foreshadowing). Watching the other girls do the bars, I felt this feeling that wasn’t unknown to anyone. I had to pee! Running down the hall to the bathroom __I arrive and suddenly a flood of happiness covers me__ (Metaphor). With a sigh of relief I empty my bladder. __As I wash my hands, this cute, little, brittle, old lady waltzed in__ (Magic 3). __She looks at me and says, “Dear, I just adored the routine you did. The song and dance was absolutely fabulous.”__ __ “Why, thank you, that means a lot to me.” I say. __ (Dialogue)

Vault was the next event and it went by slowly. I did a very terrible job. My legs hit the vault twice as I did my 2 passes. That was sure to knock me down a lot of points.

Last but certainly not least, was the beam. Oh god. I have been dreading this for a long time. When I went I psyched myself into doing a good job and I think I stressed myself out by doing that. My father was taking pictures and I hear people cheering for the other competitors in the other room. Other than that, it was silent__.__ __Not a word escaped from anyone’s mouth__ (Personification). I did my routine and I accomplished everything that I needed to. The last thing I needed to do was my cartwheel, which __I practiced for eons on__ (Hyperbole). I lunged and fell off. __I landed with a thud and a moan escaped from my mouth__ (Onomatopoeia). I quickly got back up and I finished it off with a round-off. I signaled I was done, and they excused me. I walked slowly back to my seat, and my dad came to cheer me up.

Walking back to the main room, was like the walk of shame. I was convinced that I didn’t win a thing. Little did I know my name was called, and Molly nudged me. Second place to Catherine Nardone for floor! I was so excited and I quickly ran up to claim my trophy. The awards for vault went by so quickly, I hardy even noticed. To my surprise I got 5th place, I was overjoyed! I didn’t think that I would have done that good. Now they were calling for beam. 1st through 4th went by like half a millisecond. I was so nervous. Could my fall keep me from getting a place, or could my getting back up on the beam, get me a place?

That day I got 3 awards. I got 2nd place for floor, 5th place for vault, and 5th place for beam! For the rest of the day there was a smile on my face!

Realizing my accomplishments, I can honestly say that I don’t regret any of the choices I made. The song I initially hated got me 2nd place in an advanced contest. I think that falling off the beam was a key moment in my life. Even when I get knocked down the smart thing to do is keep plugging along even when I’m not at my best. So, this I can look back on and remember that on that day, I learned to have determination, and to not give up on whatever comes my way on my journey through life. Whatever my journey calls for me to do, I’ll be there, getting through it.