Kendrick Lamar

Personal Response: A Link with Great Expectations

            When I first heard the Kendrick Lamar EP by Kendrick Lamar my life was changed forever. It was one of the most influential albums that I have ever listened to. It was released December 31, 2009. I first heard it when I was in 8^th grade and I was moved back and really amazed at what a young artist could do. It influenced me to start writing and making my own music along with several other things. The album portrayed a series of events from Kendrick Lamar’s life and he is reflecting on them and talking about how he grew and what lessons he has learned. He has admitted to mistakes he has made in the past in effort to become a better person. He talks about his family and his childhood a lot, describing how his childhood makes him the man he is today.

            When I first heard the album fully and thoroughly I was really moved and felt like it turned me into a different approach of life. It lead me to want to reflect on my past even though I was young I had intentions of bettering myself. I used to lessons that Kendrick Lamar learned about himself the long way to help my own problems. I spent months reflecting and relisting to the album and I remember the feeling I used to get when I made a mistake once and said to myself it was okay. I said it was okay because I would then reflect and gain a lesson to every mistake I made so I wouldn’t make it again.

NWTS

After listening to Drake’s junior album Nothing was the Same, it automatically changed me into a different person.  Though some people may ask, “how can one stupid album possibly affect you in any way, shape, or form”?  I don’t know, but it did.  The due date was set for September 17, 2013, but was eventually pushed back to October 24, 2013, only to leak 9 days before on October 15, 2013. 

As I listened to the album, I was shell shocked.  I told myself that I would not just listen and take the words and the sounds for what they are, but to interpret and listen to them in a deeper and more contextual way, starting with the title Nothing was the Same.  Nothing was the Same, to me, is a story about how Aubrey Graham (Drake) started as a young, immature teenager growing up with his father who lived in the poor parts of Memphis, Tennessee and also with this his mother in the rich parts of Toronto.  The album explains how Drake managed to live two lifestyles while his parents went through a tough situation, and even at times had to live with his Uncle. One side of the physical album shows Drake as a young boy, maybe about two years old.  The other, shows a picture of him now and the Drake the world is used to seeing. 

The first song on the album was Tuscan Leather featuring a sample from his father.  Some people may see Tuscan Leather and think it’s just some ridiculously expensive cologne by Tom Ford.  But, the song was much, much more than that.  Drake uses three different beat changes to tell a story about how fame has changed his relationships with women, friends, family, and himself. He recognizes how big his is in the music industry and asks people to respect what he has become over the past four years; and tells the listener that negativity doesn’t faze him like it used to.  He says:

“Strep throat flows can stop all of the talking, got one reply for all of your negative comments, forget what you think, my life is a completed checklist”.

From beginning to end, the album paints an even bigger picture of Drake’s fame, relationships with people and how what he went through since he began rapping on the once popular teen show Degrassi changed him into the international icon that he was become. 

When I was finished listening to the album, it made me think about life, and how things changed from when I can remember to now. Even though I’m only fifteen, I can still relate to how Drake has conflicts with his family over things that aren’t always in his control. When a conflict arose between a friend and I that used to go to the same school arose, I thought of this album.  My friend, who claims that I have drastically changed for the worst after coming to KO, says that I wasn’t the same when we were cool.   Instead of neglecting his allegations and accusations, I understood his side of the story and put myself in his position; by doing this, I could sort of see where he was coming from.  To make a long story short, using Drake’s experiences that he wrote about Nothing Was The Same as a reference when dealing with certain relationships, it makes things much easier to comprehend.

Role Model

I met my best friend Lauren Batton when I tried out for the Farmington travel soccer team in fourth grade this was the first link. We had lived in the same town almost all of our lives and even went to the same Elementary school for a year before she moved to Unionville and was nearer to a different one, and still we had never met.

I don’t remember that exact moment of even the exact day, but I do remember that at first we were both shy and weren’t very good friends. She was just another teammate. Between 4^th and 5^th grade we became closer and closer with a few sleepovers here and there and when I moved to Unionville and was just a few minutes away from where she lived we would carpool a lot, and our families were just beginning to become really good friends which was my next link.

However we didn’t become really close until the summer before 6^th grade when her mom died which was the next link. Her mom was one of the nicest people that I knew. I remember I was at my family’s lake house standing in the living room when my mom came in from the porch. She was standing in the doorway, and telling me with such a straight face. After that we all just went quite. I didn’t understand it and I didn’t really want, so I didn’t think about. I didn’t cry and we didn’t talk about it at all.

           The day of the funeral was a really nice sunny day, which I think is actually perfect because they weren’t calling it a funeral; they were calling it a celebration of her life. I can still picture the church where it was held, which was almost all white which probably stood out even more to me in contrast with everyone’s black attire. Laurens dad and father spoke and I remember admiring how brave Lauren and her family was.

That summer after it happened my family spent at least one night a week over at her house, and would stay until late. My sister, Lauren, and I would sit up stairs in her dad’s room watching cartoons and other shows like the Nanny and George Lopez until it was time for us to leave. Once school started we saw each other less and less because I was starting at a private school and she still went to Farmington Public School. Our families didn’t spend as much time together but we still did, we would hangout at least once a month, playing soccer, lacrosse, talking, making plans for the future, staying up late watching TV. Her house became my home away from home. This was the next link.

Lauren always made me want to be better at soccer and lacrosse driving me with friendly competitions. She is the reason I love lacrosse, want to be alway get better, and want to play in college, without her I am not ever sure I would be playing to this day. We went to countless college games and bonded over out mutual goal of wanting to play as good as them one day. I owe where I am today with lacrosse to her.

            Our next link was the summer before freshmen year when she asked me to go on vacation with her family to Georgia, and Michigan for four weeks, which made us even better friends. 

I was jealous of how brave she was after her mom died, and never broke down, or complained about anything. She has great views of right and wrong that I always try to live up to. Honestly when ever someone asks me for advice I tell them what I think that Lauren would do.

            Today I still consider her my best friend even though we don’t hangout or talk as often as we used to, I know that she will always be there for me, and know exactly what to say. She is my mole model, and I am so thankful to have her in my life because without her I probably wouldn’t be the person that I am today.

First Pitch

I stepped through the gate into the concourse and smelled the smoke from the grills and beer. People wearing red and navy blue surrounded me. I had never been to Fenway before and had always wondered what it would be like. To see the green monster, the team, the players; I really couldn’t tell what I was looking forward to most. In fact I had never been to Boston at all, but I knew I would like it. The game itself was probably not as exciting as I thought it was, but I was hooked nonetheless. My love, more an obsession actually, began that day.

            “Don’t get too attached,” my dad said. “They always find a way to break your heart”However, luckily for me they wouldn’t break my heart as they did my father’s when they won the World Series in 2004.

Kingswood Oxford

In life there are many coincidences that occur. However sometimes things feel so right and natural that it seems as if it was fate instead of a coincidence. This is exactly my feelings towards Kingswood Oxford. Since day one there has been something bout this school that has enticed me and made it almost as easy as breathing to continue my education here at Kingswood. The person I am today and am becoming is all stemmed from my very first day at Kingswood that is now blooming into a 5 year relationship with this school.

 

I remember picking out a special outfit that day. Something that would make me stand out but also be apart of the group. I gathered all of my things, put it all into my backpack, and walked out the front door of my house shy, nervous, yet excited. The ride to the school seemed as if it lasted an hour instead of the 15 minute drive it really is. When we finally arrived I stepped out of the car, went around to the trunk, put my wheelie back pack on the ground and walked toward the doors of the middle school. The butterflies inside my stomach seemed to flap their wings harder and faster because at that moment I felt almost nauseous. Unknown to me at the time this day would become one of my fondest memories because in this one day I would form friendships that have yet to fail me. As I walked in through the doors I remember the few moments I took to take in everything around me. The different people that surrounded me, the personalities each different made me feel like an empowered individual among equals. Finally when everything began to set in I looked around for people who had the same look of confusion on where to go as I had. Soon I noticed a group of girls introducing themselves not knowing that they would either hate or love each person they were encountering. I decided to join and automatically I found a common interest with almost every person; some of whom I am still extremely close with today. Their personalities ranged from sporty, to extremely intelligent, to just laid back go with the flow kind of people. I began to socialize with them and soon were already considering them to be my friends. As the day continued I was also introduced to my teachers as well as the subjects I would be taking that would allow me to be in the educational position I am today. These classes, each differing from one another, would prove to be some of the most thought provoking and on some days sleep preventing subjects that made the school as educationally advanced as it is. Soon my academic day had ended along with a portion of athletics and I found myself giving and receiving hugs to people I had just met a few hours previous. I realized here I was already accepted and this feeling gained me the amount of confidence I have today. The last thing I recall from this experience was the smile on my face as I entered the car willing to tell my mom every little detail I had experienced in my new school.

 

It has been 5 years since that day and it is still a clear and vivid picture in my mind. All of the people I met on that day have proven to be some of my closest friends to this day. I am now a junior in high school and have gone from a timid upper prepper to now, in my opinion, a confident and self insured individual. I have kept many of the friendships I have started in the middle school and they continue to grow every day. Through Kingswood I have become the person I am today and continue to grow with the remaining two years I have left out of this school. Kingswood is my home away from home and without it I would feel lost.

Dance: My Passion

Dance has always been a major part of my life and something that I have been doing since I was very little. I remeemeber I use to sit outside of my sisters dance classes and I would tap my foot along to the music or stand up and try to do the steps along with her. She was one of the major reasons I started dance and without her I don't know what I would be doing today. I started dance classes at the age of six and this coming year will be my eleven year as a dancer. 

I rememeber my first dance class perfectly and is a day I will always treasure. Obivously, I was very young and this being my first dance class I was extremly nervous. I started my dance career at a very small, two room studio, in Elmood called Alyce Carella's Dance Center. I was one of 5 boys who started in this class. At the time, I was the smallest kid in the class, which was very intimidating to me. At the time, my teachers name was Kim. Kim was my very first tap teacher ever and she was the nicest person. She was so welcoming and made me feel so comfortable from the start. She began with the basics of tap and worked on each step indvidually and perfected our steps to make sure we had a strong base line for tap. The class felt like the shortest 45 minutes of my life and when it was over I didn't want to leave. Kim excitedly told us that she couldn't wait to see us all next week and how impressed she was with us. I proudly walked out of the studio with the biggest grin on my face. That day was the first step in my long career as a dancer.

Tap continues to be my favorite form of dance, but certainly not the only type. Shortly after tap, my mother thought it might be a good idea to start ballet. At first, I was very hestiant, but after a couple of classes I felt like I should have started ballet sooner. Next, I added jazz to my repertoire, and finally added Broadway dance, which basically consists of a mix of jazz, ballet, and street tap. After experimenting with so many different forms of dance and after many years of training and perfecting each and every step, I realized that dance was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I always thought that since I was a boy doing dance I would feel out of place or unwanted, but dance proved to be just the opposite. Dance gave me a place to escape, be free, and simply have fun. Today I attend dance classes 3-4 times a week, which certinaly isn't easy with the amount of school work, but it dosen't stress me out because dance is my passion. After years of training I began recieivng dancing roles, dancing solos, and I even became the choreography this summer for an elite arts camp. Choreography is a career path that I would love to persue and something that do everyday. I am constantly up in my room choreographing mulitple different numbers each day, dancing through the kitchen, and tapping my foot through hours of homework. I have created so many storng relationships through dance and I persoanlly have become both stronger physically and emotionally because of it. Dancing is simply not a hobby or an acivitiy that I like to do. Dancing is my life and something that I would love to pursue.

Everyone has those pivotal moments in their life, big or small to the world, they change a person. Freshman year we all walked around during the club fair and I saw a big poster. It had some pictures of a globe on it. I didn't really notice that much, I saw that one of the only seniors I knew was heading the club, so I thought I would sign up. After all, what was the harm? I got an email later in the day saying that I had joined the club and that was it. A few weeks later I got another email, asking if I wanted to go to a conference in Philadelphia. It was called SDLC and I didn't really know what it was, I had mentioned it to my parents and they had said maybe and I never gave it a second thought. Around a week after that I was walking to lunch and I got a call from my dad. He said the deadline to apply was today and that if I wanted to apply I had to write my paper by the end of the day. I freaked out and ran to the library and frantically typed out the paper. I sent it to the head of the club and then that was it. The next day I was asked to go. I couldn't believe it, but never the less, the time came to go to the trip and I did. And to be completely blunt. It was life changing. I changed the way I looked at the world and started to see problems with the standards around me. From then on I looked at things differently. That club was united students and that conference was a pivotal point in my life. When I look back at that moment now I'm so thankful that I applied, I almost didn't. If I hadn't, I would never be a club leader, I never would question the way I looked at the world, and honestly I wouldn't be me.

The Fire Rises

“Don’t worry Nick, you’ll be okay!”  My dad looked at me with great excitement and encouragement.  “You will be fine.  I will be with you the whole time.”  He reached out and grabbed my hand and I reached out with a small sign of trust.  He grabbed my hand and we started down a dark path.  We both stumbled as we walked towards the rink.  The briskness of bit both our noses as we slowly made our way into the brightness of the rink.  I looked up at my dad and continued forward while balancing on tiny slabs of steel hoping not to fall.  The rink was in sight and he stepped on.  The crunch of the blades hitting the ice echoed around the arena.  I looked forward in amazement of the pure size and brightness of the rink sharply contrasted to the claustrophobic and dark hallway we recently traveled through.  “Come on Nick, you can do it!” encouraged my dad.  I hesitantly stepped onto the freshly frozen bed of water.  My skate hit and wobbled.  It felt as if I was going to fall.  My dad grabbed me while I reached forward with my other skate.  My legs were trembling with nervousness.  I didn’t want to fall.  We pushed forward and slowly migrated across the rink.  While passing over the red line, I looked up at my dad.  Towering at least 4 feet over me, I saw a huge smile as we continued down the ice.  I knew we were both having a great time.  I looked down ice and saw a large blue half circle.  Blue more vivid than the Mediterranean filled the semi-circle as a ring of warm red outlined it.  Just beyond it towered a large net with bright red posts and white netting.  We traveled closer and closer and the more excited I became.  “That’s the goal crease for ice hockey,” he explained.  “The goalie protects the net from the other team from scoring on it.”  I pushed forward and fell.  He helped me up and we both glided to the lake of blue.  I stumbled inside of the crease and I knew I would never turn back.  This was my new home.

That was my first time ever skating.  I remember that day so vividly because it is so important to me and how I became who I am.  From there I started to play hockey for Westfield Youth Hockey, I was always a left wing and I hated it.  I always asked my coach to be a goalie but I never got the chance until several years later.  Those years of struggle were completely worth it when I finally got the chance to be a goalie.  After strapping on the pads, I never looked back.  I always pushed myself to get better and better.  Soon after I moved to a new organization called the New England Junior Falcons.  This organization was the best around us and my parents and I both knew this was the right choice.  I played there for a total of seven years until I went to the Chiefs.  From the Chiefs, I decided prep school.  Prep school hockey is the best hockey one can play in New England.  I am now Kingswood Oxford and so far have been the best experience of my life.  It has been difficult to leave such a great life at Southwick High School, but it is worth it on many levels.

Without many people helping get to where I am now, I would never be here.  Hockey is such a major aspect in my life.  That first day on the ice with my dad sparked my interest and my parents both started the fire.  Countless coaches and others acted as an inspiration and an object to help me push myself to be the best I can be.  Bane from the Dark Knight Rises said, “Awh yes! The fire rises brother” My parents started the fire, many helped it burn, and I hope to always keep the fire burning. 

Softball

For as long as I could remember, I had always played two sports- soccer and softball. I knew that I would want to play one of these sports in college, however I was unsure of which one. Heading into high school, I really had to make a decision. After the summer was over my decision was quite clear. I wanted to play softball.

My freshman year, I still continued to play soccer for the school team but it was just for fun. The spring came and I played softball and that was that. Over the summer I played in multiple tournaments with my travel team and even went to three individual college showcases. 

Sophomore year came quick and knowing that I wanted to play softball in college, I had to try out for a college showcase team- the one I play on now. Unfortunately, I had to quit soccer in order to fully commit myself to doing this. All of a sudden I was practicing at least three times a week with the team, trying to complete individual strength training three times a week, and go to four tournaments throughout the course fall. Luckily they were only two day tournaments. My schedule was constantly full and getting homework done was always a struggle. But, I had to find a way to balance it all because as my coaches always say, “If you can’t find a balance, you can’t play in college.” 

Over the winter, I had to come up with a list of ten to twelve colleges I wanted to be recruited by and send an introduction email. As a sophomore I had no idea where to even start, but things seemed to work itself out. After the introduction email, responses about coming to that schools camp flew back almost instantly. Of course, in order to get recruited, you had to go to camps, so I went. 

School finished at the beginning of June and a week or two later, I was back at it again-practice three times and a three-day tournament on the weekend. It was exhausting. I emailed coaches and played all summer. 

Today, I still have practice two to three times a week with four tournaments in the fall. I still have to do individual strength training three times a week and I have to email coaches every week. As annoying as it is, it pays off in the end and I love to spend time with my team who is like a second family. 

My First Backflip

      One of the most memorable days in my life took place in the fall of my sophomore year. I had just recently started riding mountain bikes, I used to ride BMX until I knocked my front four teeth out when I took a spill. After this incident, which occurred during my freshman year, my parents and I both agreed that I should no longer ride bikes of jumps. I sold my BMX bike and purchased a mountain bike so it wouldn't force me to hit jumps. However this was not the case. 

      Now it was fall of my sophomore year. This was my most memorable day. It was a Saturday morning when I texted my friend Chad. He is one of my best friends and is a sponsored mountain bike rider. I texted him if he could come over that day because I needed him to give me some help for the flip. I had the perfect jump set up in my yard for backflipping. My neighbor and I built it with his father a few weeks prior to this day. Sure enough my friend Chad wanted to come over, and was excited for me to flip. I was beyond scared. He brought pads for me to wear that protects your spinal cord if I fell. However, I couldn't make him drive over for nothing, so there was no backing down. I went for my first flip attempt in the late morning around eleven o'clock. I messed up on the flip terribly and broke my handlebars, I should have broken my neck. Luckily, my neighbor had a spare pair of handlebars in his basement that he let me use. Then it was back to flips. It took me nine tries total of me just crashing attempting the flip. I finally landed the backflip on the tenth attempt and was so happy. If I was not wearing those pads he let me borrow, I probably would have been seriously injured. But I had just landed my first backflip on a bike. All my friends ran up to me and started hugging and clapping for me. They were all excited too. This was my most memorable day. 

      Looking back at this day to where I am today with biking, I have succeeded greatly. I have no learned some other tricks, and have even rode in a competition. I was awarded an award at the competition too which was awesome. Now I love biking so much and can do backflips whenever I please. And I no longer fall on them like the first time when I tried them. Chad and I have been working real hard lately at riding and learning new tricks. We are having a professional filmer come and film us to make and edit so we can get sponsors for biking. I can't wait. From when I landed my first flip to now, I believed I succeeded tremendously. 

Broken

A year ago I would never have thought that I would be in the same position or be even remotely the same person that I am today. Before the summer of 2012 my entire life was based around basketball. Basketball was not just a sport to me, it was more like a lifestyle. Everything that I did had to do with playing, watching, thinking, or coaching basketball. This is not a totally healthy lifestyle because it caused my mood to reflect the outcome of how I did that day in my game or practice. I recognized that this lifestyle wasn’t totally healthy, however I enjoyed it because it brought a lot of attention to me since I was very good. Basketball also began to become like a trait that some used to define me as a person. An example of this was when my new neighbors with a son in my grade at the public school in my town came to my house and immediately saw me and said “You’re Zack Goldman, the basketball prodigy”, and laughed. Although this was an obvious exaggeration it shows the real type of the one definition aspect that was put on me.

During the summer of 2012, right after I came home from a two month summer training facility in Florida, an event happened that forever changed my life and started a new chain of events to occur; I broke my foot. When I returned home from Florida I went strait to a school practice the next day, eager to show off my new skills. In the school practice the team was doing a one on one defensive drill when suddenly I felt a pop in my foot and pain that started to gradually worsen. At first I didn’t think much of the pain, however after trying to play through the pain for the next half hour I realized that something was seriously wrong and that I needed to stop practicing. After returning home and icing my foot for about an hour I recognized that this was no sprain or temporary injury. It was then that it hit me that my journey back to basketball was going to be just that, a journey. The next couple months that followed included severe pain, trips to multiple doctors across the country, and extremely frustrating inconclusive/contradicting diagnoses by every doctor that I saw.

By the time that school started I was a mess mentally and in a cast up to my knee due to the last doctor who wanted to “try something” because he had nothing else in mind. The worst part of the whole experience was getting told be each and every doctor dates when my foot should have healed, and passing each of those dates, one by one, with a foot that was no better than it was before. This was all unbelievable mentally taxing and I began to become depressed and recognized that I would be missing the entire basketball season. The stress that my foot was putting on me mentally was too much to deal with and I therefore told my parents that I couldn’t deal with the kind of lifestyle that I had been living and had to have a new start. This resulted in my parents and I frantically looking for something that I could do with my semi-broken foot for the second semester of junior year. I also was determined to repeat my junior year so I could get some time to set in my new personality and look at life in general.

My parents and I kept coming up blank in our search for a non-physical program that was willing to accept a second semester junior who wanted to repeat junior year. We also faced some trouble getting permission from the school to repeat junior year. Finally my parents and I found one program that did something that I never in my life had a desire to so, spend a semester of high school in Israel. I never really felt proud of my heritage as Jewish or even really ever liked or cared about the religion. I was however willing to do anything to get my one missed basketball season back.

I never imagined how great of an outcome that my semester in Israel would have on me. The trip and particularly the people on it who became my best friends gave me a whole new perspective on life and made me realize how truly big and diverse the world really is. After returning home from the trip I had a totally new attitude, new things I wanted to try, new best friends, and most importantly a new view of what could make me happy or upset and a new perspective on everything.

New York City

I love to sing.  That's a fact and that's what I love to do.  I always sang in the car and did musicals when I was little, but I never knew it would become my passion.  When I was seven, I did my first musical with my dad.  The years following, I continued to do theater, but it was only a fun thing to do with my dad.  When I was nine, I had my first major audition.

I remember it perfectly.  It was my first New York audition, I was very nervous.  I was auditioning to be in the American Girl Doll musical at their store.  My mom and I went up to New York the night before so that we could get there early for the audition.  I hated waking up early, and still do.  But it was an open call, and many girls flocked to New York to audition so we had to get there early.  I was number 17 in line, that's how early we got there.  I remember waiting there for hours standing outside of the store before it even opened.  It was wintertime so I was so cold.  I remember hearing older girls complain about how their vocal chords weren't warm.  We waited even longer once we were in the store.  My girls didn't eat that day because they didn't want to ruin their vocal chords with dairy products (meanwhile, I'm literally having cheez its and goldfish).  I was really nervous for my audition, but it ended up being one of the most thrilling ones I've been to.  I got called back to audition three times after the first audition, I remember being back in Connecticut and hear my mom excited on the phone with the producers.  I made it to the last group of girls.  There were 8 roles and they called back 10 girls.  I was so excited, I couldn't believe I was this close to being an American Girl.  Unfortunately, I was one of the two girls cut, but the experience brought out my love for theater and spark of competition at such a young age.  

That audition led to many others.  Overwhelming at first, but I got used to it.  I loved auditioning for new directors and seeing people I knew at different auditions.  I soon found out that theater is a small business, and I bumped into the same girls at multiple auditions.  Although I started auditioning and taking classes in New York at an early age, it soon became difficult to travel to the city and I fell behind in school.  My mom decided it would be best to start looking for opportunities in Connecticut, so I started to audition for professional theaters here.  I was lucky enough to be in two tours at the Bushnell and three at Hartford Stage.  As a teenager, I now average being in 3-4 shows a year.  It's almost like I'm addicted to theater and I'm determined to build my resume.  Now that I'm older, I desperately want to go back to New York auditions.  I want to get out of Connecticut and go back to New York but it is too hard with school.  I wish I could go back to that first link and audition more in the city.  The bottom line is that ever since that one audition when I was nine years old, my passion for theater grew.  I love theater, but I almost feel like I love auditioning more.  The thrill of auditioning really gets me.  I love trying to impress someone who hasn't heard me sing before, and maybe even surprise them.  I love bumping into old friends at auditions.  And I love getting happy results from auditions.

Squash

Basketball was really the first link in the chain for me. Or, rather, being cut from the A team in 7th grade. Frankly, I didn't really like playing in the Duck league, as it was called (that was an intramural league that those on the B team played in). So, I decided that, rather than play another year of the Duck league, or make the A team but not play as much, I decided to give squash a try in 8th grade.

I had heard of it, but never really had any idea what it was. I got 1 or 2 lessons from Joanne at Trinity before going to my first day of practice at KO so that I wouldn't completely make a fool of myself, but I was still really bad. However, as the season progressed, I continued to play, and even got in several lessons throughout the winter. By the time the season ended, I was in love with squash. For many years before that, lacrosse had been my main sport; now, lacrosse was out the window, and squash filled its place.

Freshman year was when my squash career began to take off, because it was my first year of actual competition, rather than just playing the people who were at practice with me. Now, that isn't to say that I was any good; I lost every single game that I played in every one of our matches. However, I was getting lessons once a week, and got a membership so that I could use the Trinity courts whenever I wanted to, and wasted no time in going down to play on the weekends. By the time the season ended, I knew that I wanted to continue playing squash for quite a while longer. I was getting lessons every week, even through the spring.

Fast forward to sophomore year. I was playing on the Varsity team, if not very high up on the ladder. For the first half of the season, I was still getting lessons at Trinity, playing my school matches, but I noticed that I wasn't really improving as much as I wanted to. Sure, I won a game or two, but that was it. However, during the second half of the season, I finally got in touch with Mick Robberds, the squash pro down at Hartford Golf Club, whom I had been trying to reach for quite a while. I had heard about him from Mason, the #2 player on the team, who had been getting lessons from Mick for quite a while. As soon as I went down there to play, I absolutely fell in love with it. Mick was great; he really helped me get my game underway, and I was noticeably improving. I won a couple of my matches, and could tell that I was really getting better.

Once winter of sophomore year ended, I knew that I didn't want to stop laying just because the season had stopped. I was getting lessons from Mick once a week, and I was playing in the clinics at Hartford Golf Club as well, which was really beneficial because I was able to get in some good competition. However, the really big push was this past summer, when I was playing 5 days a week almost every week. Mick was holding camps, and bringing in different professionals to help out each week. I was playing for 2-3 hours every single day, resting up on the weekends, and going right back to it on Monday.

Now, I am still getting lessons from Mick every Friday, and going to the clinics every Wednesday, and loving every minute of it.

The First Link in the Chain

Sometimes I like to think that my marriage was fated. Or, maybe I just read too many books, filling my mind with questions about destiny and free will. When I look back over the last 10 years, I can trace where I am now back to one memorable day.

My husband and I grew up in the same town for most of our young and adolescent lives but never knew each other. I'm two years older than him, we didn't attend the same elementary schools, and he went to the local public school while I went to Taft (where my parents teach and I grew up). Although we knew many of the same people, my husband and I never met--until the summer of 2003 when I had just graduated from college and took a job working at the Taft Summer School. He applied to work there as well, and we first saw each other during an opening meeting on the first day of summer school. As a returning summer school teacher, I gathered with friends I had made the summer before, glad that I wasn't part of the terrified throng of interns. I can still remember the unshakable sense of deja vu I felt that muggy June morning in the faculty room. Sure, the wood-paneled walls and recessed bookshelves of the faculty room were a familiar sight, and the odd aroma of coffee, old books, musty furniture, and freshly cut grass brought me back to previous summers of my youth, scrambling over the furniture and climbing the rickety spiral staircase to the balcony of that room. These sights, smells, and sounds were ingrained in my childhood. Something else seemed strangely familiar. I scanned the room, wondering if perhaps I had crossed paths with one of the teachers in high school or college. That wasn't it. The intern with the wild curly hair and the beaded hemp necklace stood out. We must have crossed paths a number of times before then, so this familiar feeling wasn't unfounded, but the first time we met (on that late June morning) forged the first link.We discovered that he was good friends with the younger brother of one of my best friends, and that his parents and my parents knew many of the same people as well. By the end of that first week, a summer romance had begun, and we were inseparable.

By the end of the summer, when he was headed back to college for his junior year and I was leaving for Boston to start a job, we decided to give the long-distance thing a try, and it worked.

After a year in Boston, I found a job teaching at Berkshire School (a boarding school in the Berkshires), and I remained there for 4 years while my husband finished his last year at UConn, got a MA in Teaching and looked for a job. As a faculty kid myself, I always loved boarding school life, and for years I thought I'd probably end up living and working at a boarding school for the rest of my life. But, my husband comes from a family of public school teachers, and the idea of living in a dorm with high school kids was less than appealing to him. He found a public high school teaching job in CT, and our yet another link in the chain was forged. Still together (but not yet married), we moved together to central CT, and I found a job at a lovely day school in West Hartford. :)

Now, my husband and I have been married for over 2 years, have a house, and are set on a path. Ten years ago, I never would have guessed that I'd be living in Avon, working at a day school, and married to someone from my home town, but fate had plans for me, and I can trace where I am today back to that one memorable encounter on a late June day.