Tales of Tenth Grade

Recently my club lacrosse coach asked everyone to write a "dear lacrosse" letter thanking lacrosse and saying what's done for us. At first I thought it was stupid because what would writing a letter to a sport do? You can't even right a letter to a sport because (obviously) it's not a person. I wrote the letter anyway, and I realized after writing the letter how much I miss lacrosse. I also decided that I spent time to write it, so why not use it for my blog too?  Dear Lacrosse,  I never realized how much I take being able to play for granted. I used to go to my practices and games without thinking twice about how lucky I am to be able to get up and play. Now I think about how much I miss playing with my teams. I miss laughing with my teammates and having a good time while playing lacrosse. As the days get warmer, I think about how perfect the weather would have been for lacrosse. It almost feels like a waste, having such a perfect day and not being out on a f...

Every year this time of the year in the sports world there isn't a lot of action. Football has ended with the Kansas City Chiefs beating the San Francisco 49ers to take home the Lombardi Trophy. The NBA is in the middle of their season and takes a two week break during February for allstar weekend which featured many stars and events, and March Madness doesn't start for another month. But for baseball it is very exciting with pitchers and catchers reporting to training camp the second week of february and spring training games starting shortly after. For anyone who is not a sports enthusiast, Spring Training in baseball is when the players report to their designated camp, (Florida or Arizona depending on facility location) practice and play "scrimmages" as these games they play don't matter in the actual season. Even though these games don't technically matter it is a good time for players to get back in the swing of things and get ready for the long season ...

As February begins another Super Bowl has come and gone, and this year it was actually a pretty good game. For the 54th Super Bowl, the match up was between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The game was played at Miami Gardens this past Sunday, and it lived up to the expectations of sports fans all over the country. To understand why this was a large breath of fresh air for a lot of football fans, you have to go back to last year's Super Bowl. The game was between the Patriots and the Rams, and it was arguably the most boring Super Bowl in history. The Patriots won 13-3, and the lack of offensive talent on the field led to a real snooze fest for a lot of fans. However, this year it was different. Coming into this game, there was one story that trumped all of the others. How would Patrick Mahomes, the star quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs, be able to handle himself against Nick Bosa and the number one ranked San Francisco defense. The 49ers had gotten...

There are a lot of things in the world that are very important to me, so this actually wasn't easy. When I started brainstorming, I didn't want to do anything super stereotypical like my family or my pets. Of course, those things are more important to me than anything else in the world, but I felt like it might be a bit boring to read and to write, so I thought more about it. After some time of thinking about what was really important to me, and trying to make it a bit less conventional, my mind jumped to skiing. I really enjoy it and plus, it gives me something to do during the winter. I didn't learn to ski until only a couple of years ago, but since I learned to skate a while ago, I didn't really have any issues learning. Within an hour or two I was already doing pretty well and bombing down the bunny slope. Over time I went skiing more with my friends, and got better where I could do all of the black diamonds at mountain creek. However, the slopes there aren'...

Throughout my life, I find myself cherishing many of the things that I do. From enjoying times with friends to immersing myself in new environments, I find myself in a consistent pattern in what brings me joy and makes me me. While there are so many little things that bring me random happiness, I can concentrate most of what's important to me into three main pillars that constitute a "Happy Colin." These three simple elements - family, baseball, and giving back - combine in just the right way that makes it the "perfect compound" for me. The first element of this compound, and the most important, is my family. My family is my core. While it's hard to explain, it's like the air I breathe - I can't exist without it. Of course, I can write about the cliche that they are there for me and that they support me and that they love me. While that's true, there's something else that just makes them the most important people to me. They are the only peo...

Today is October 2, two days before the New York Yankees begin their postseason matchups, and look to eventually punch their ticket into the 2019 World Series. The Yankees ended the season with a record of 103-59, the third-best in the Majors behind only the Dodgers and the Astros, and they are the second seed in the American League bracket. On Friday, October 4th, the Yanks will face off with the Minnesota Twins in Game 1 of the American League Divisional series. The Twins will walk into the Bronx with a pep in their step, ending the season with a record of 101-61 and a Major League record 307 home runs. The best of 5 set should be a good one, seeing as these two teams are very similar in how they play -- they both rely on the home run ball. While the twins hit 307 homers this year, the Yankees were only one behind that at 306, and with Yankee stadium being a home run hitters dream (right field is only 314 feet, which is not a lot), there should be a lot of balls flying out of the par...

Since school has started, everything is pretty uneventful so far. All of my classes are still kind of getting into the groove of school, so we only have had a couple assessments and not much homework. The Cross Country season is starting to get difficult. Over the summer we just ran long distances at a pretty easy pace, but over the past week or two leading up to school, we are starting to do more difficult workouts like sprints and hill work and intervals. At our second meet, it was super hot out, and the best runner on our team, James, had a heat stroke. He finished the race, but then he collapsed at the end and he had to go to the hospital, and he was there for a couple of days. The next day we got educated on how to run in the heat and how it can be dangerous if you don't handle it correctly. Other than that nothing very interesting has happened yet this year. I have the same friends, similar classes, similar activities, and I'm fine with that. I'm not really someone wh...

In the fall season, I play tennis for the school. It's super fun, and everyone on the team gets along really well. The only not so great part about playing tennis is that it always seems to be forgotten. For example, last year we ordered new uniforms, and they never came. Another thing was that our apparel order from last year didn't come until the second-to-last game of the season and our season was longer than it was supposed to be. This year, we actually got uniforms, but they're completely different than what we asked for. It's a dark blue shirt with "Sparta" in white letters and a dark blue skirt. The uniforms look more like a youth cheer uniform than a tennis uniform. It's also annoying because we requested a white shirt with a light blue skirt, and we got neither of those things. Because we don't like our uniforms, everyone bought a white skirt and now we wear that with the blue shirt, which makes the uniform slightly better. Tennis matches ...