My Millbrook Experience

I was...

... just a scrawny, socially awkward freshman transitioning from a small charter school of about 300 to a huge high school of about 3,000. Being scared and excited at the same time, I was determined to succeed and ready for the new challenges ahead of me for the next four years. Back then it started out as a dream, but then it became a reality with a big bump in the road along the way. That dream was to play my favorite sport under my high school logo, baseball. I had started playing the game at a later age that anyone else. Began playing competitively at the older age of 13 years old in the Raleigh Parks and Recreation league, North Wake, and one year on my middle school team. I did not know anything about baseball until I was 13, so I practiced every day to transform myself into a serious ball player. I was not a big kid, only weighing around 110 pounds going into my freshman year. I was not the least bit athletic, but I worked hard to turn myself into an athlete. Baseball was a sport I wanted to pursue in high school, despite the odds being stacked against me. Going into fall workouts of freshman year, none of the coaches or players knew me. Every other freshman played on the Millbrook baseball summer team prior to the school year, but I didn't try out so I was at a disadvantage from the start. Determined to prove I belonged in the program, I attended nearly every work out, community service, and fundraising event for the team. When February came around, all that hard work did not pay off the first time and my name was not called by Coach James when the final JV roster was announced. Although I was devastated and disappointed at the time, I needed to put a lot into perspective. I had another year to prove I belong. Training day and night by myself and with my dad, I wanted to prove everyone wrong and make baseball an opportunity for me my next three years in high school. 

Sophomore year was here. Over the summer I had many long talks with my dad about whether I should give baseball another shot or whether I even had a chance to make the program at Millbrook. Last year after tryouts ended, I thought my baseball dreams did as well. In the end, I decided to give it another shot and go through the whole process again. During that off-season I made myself better through playing North Wake again and knew that this spring it was going to be different for me. Fall workouts began in September and five months later I made the JV team as a sophomore. It was a fun season and made myself and my family proud. My doubters still needed to be put to rest. Junior year came and being on the varsity team was still not a guarantee. After showing out my summer ball season for Millbrook going into my junior year, many people still did not think I would make the varsity team. I was said that I was too skinny, too small, I didn't throw hard enough, and I didn't have what it takes. Knowing myself, I had to keep my eyes on the prize and not let anything stand in my way. While facing the rigorous challenges of the IB program my junior year along with making myself a better ball player, it became an emotional roller coaster for me. But after everything I have been through since beginning my baseball career in Parks and Rec, I made the Millbrook varsity team my junior year. A few years back, even I never thought this moment would come, but I did it and could have not been happier. My junior season, I was a part of the greatest team in Millbrook baseball history, as we made it to the Eastern Regional Finals for the first time since 1993. That playoff run was one of the best memories I will ever have in my life and I will not forget all my teammates that season who I shared the journey with.

There have been many ups and downs in my four years here at Millbrook High Schools. There have been a lot more negatives than positives unfortunately, but many great things lie ahead of me. I was accepted to Wingate University this past July. I was so overjoyed knowing that I was already going to college before my senior year even began, probably accepted to a college before anyone else. Being in the IB program is what caused me to receive a big scholarship from Wingate, so although it was stressful, challenging, and the reason for my sleep deprivation, it paid off for me in the end. My grades in high school were never the best, but I gave it my very best effort. and that is what will carry me in the next chapter of my life at Wingate University and beyond. I am excited to major in sports management at Wingate and pursue a career as a baseball scout which I have wanted to do since I was a little kid. As I finish up my current senior baseball season, I am determined to make the Wingate baseball team. My hard work, drive and commitment can hopefully carry me into furthering my baseball career, Through all the challenges and hardships of my four years here, they will be times I look back on later in life and memories I will cherish forever.

Walt Whitman's Notebook

Step 1: I thought this notebook was very interesting and unique, but yes it was very difficult to make out the words he wrote. The words and phrases he wrote in the notebook seemed to be very concise and straight forward. The notes he wrote in his notebook could be his thoughts on the world around him, since that is what a lot of his poems were about. They could also been ideas, titles, or topics for his poems and what he was going to write about in the future. There are a few drawings at the end of the notebook that could either be self portraits of himself or sketches of ideas for characters in his writing. There are also a few marks on a select few pages with a stamp of a symbol that I can't quite make out, but he might of stamped his notebook himself.

Step 2: After looking through Whitman's notebook a second time and seeing what he actually wrote, it made me question Walt Whitman even more as a person and what was going through his mind most of the time. On the beginning page he wrote down different addresses of people he was close to, possibly as a reminder note in case he forgets the addresses in the future. On many of the pages in his notebook, he writes a lot about President Abraham Lincoln and his encounter with him outside of a hotel in New York, Whitman only briefly saw him and described the expression on his face as deeply sad. He then interestingly creates an imaginary conversation between him and President Lincoln. It is possible that he wrote up a dialogue that he wish he would have had with Lincoln that day and wrote it for his own amusement in hopes of one day publishing this fake conversation. Evidence of this is Whitman writing down potential titles on page 3 in hopes of publishing the dialogue he has written. Whitman also jots down a lot of his thoughts on religion and seems to have many strong feelings on it. He also seems to emphasize the word "libertad" a lot in his notebook as a way to describe the union. Throughout his book, he jots down side notes, thoughts, and ideas for future writings. Also writes down his opinions on the Civil War and the world around him.