Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sincerely
I do not know how to do a profile. Tomorrow will be a good day to ask Dr. Easson how it is made and for possible ideas.
Tough but real
It is never easy to write about your flaws and weaknesses. But a good way to get over them is recognizing and working with them. When it has to do with writing:
- I need to improve and expand my language because I think in Spanish before writing the papers
- Make myself clear thinking that the paper is meant for others to read even though I'm the one writing it.
- Choose a thesis or line of thought and sticking to it. I need to avoid changing themes subtly and incoherently.
- I specially need to work with my reflection. It is very easy for me to work with everyone else's past or problems. Somehow, it is though, almost impossible, for me to work with my own problems.
- I need to show the real me in my letters.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Just Today
Well... Today was kind of a normal day. I woke up very late for class exited to receive my Bio test grade to find the teacher had not looked at the test. The day was kind of slow but at the end came the best. Baseball practice... There is no better way to end your day than with baseball... Don't you agree?? hahaha
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Harvesting Answers Where Doubts Were Sown
Baseball is a traditional sport. It is known worldwide. Many play it as a recreational sport; others make of baseball a profession. Baseball has been part of me since I was four years old. As I grew into this sport, I fell in love with it. It all started the normal way, making mistakes and learning from them as you do with anything in life. As years passed, baseball became more than fitness and entertainment. I saw it as a discipline—and since I am a pitcher—as a test of self-control tool. As a pitcher, I have control of the game. If I do not pitch, the game does not continue. This can become a responsibility, for you need control of yourself and the things that affect your day if you are to have a successful life. And as I find it fun to write about my baseball past and how it affects my future, it is an excitement to be writing about it in this paper, for I feel that I am leaving a part of me for everyone to read. It seems awkward, but since I see baseball the way I do, anytime is good to talk about baseball and how it affects my life.
It is usual to have a place where remarkable events occur. This place goes from being the normal place it may have been in the past, to “the” place that hosted that memory for which one rejoices now. The baseball field is “the” place me. Let’s be honest. How in this world, among rational human beings, can a field with a mound of dirt have an important place in a person’s heart? This is a question that might discourage some but not me. If I were to be led by other people’s words, I would have not gotten where I am now.
A baseball field is a box of surprises. It requires much more than playing the sport than to actually play on the field. For a baseball player to enjoy the thrill of playing the sport he or she loves, the field must be maintained in excellent condition. It is not only what you see but also what you must do and sacrifice to get what you see. Mow the lawn, rake the cut lawn, and pick it up. Rake the field—where the dirt is—and sprinkle it. Correct any imperfections on the mound and make sure no spot was left around the field. What took me a line and a half to write can take a group of ten people at least a day to do. To leave those outfields as green as pickles, the dirt as beautiful as if it was to pass an inspection by the government, and the mound, the mound... The mound is the most important part and what I dedicate most of my time to. The reason is simple: it is on the mound where I transform myself into another person completely, lose track of time, and achieve a mental toughness not shown everyday.
I do understand people when they say that baseball is way too boring, and that sitting in the same place for three hours is not the traditional way of having fun. My response is that, maybe you know what it feels to sit on the bleachers, but not what it feels like to be playing on the field. If you know how it feels, perhaps you understand my passion. Showing that baseball is more than the mere sport, requires passion. It is not the same to perform an action with passion and just doing it to get through the moment. When you do something with passion, you put mind and body into it. This combination gives you, most of the time, success over not only the event but life as well. Linking passion to baseball is easy. If you are pitching the ninth inning—which is the last inning in baseball—and are ahead by just one run when the count is three balls two strikes with runners in scoring position, adrenaline starts pumping through your body. You reach a tachycardia, and if you are really nervous, even your vision starts to blur. This is when the real players are set apart from the bunch. This is when passion sets the adrenaline unreachable for the weak-hearted. Only a passionate person would be able to conquer this type of situation. Letting not emotions, but instincts guide you in such situations may be the key to victory in a situation that seems likely to take it all from you.
To me, baseball has been a tool to overcome all of my limitations. It has taught me when I can rely on hunches and when I must use common sense to guide my actions. It is a weird method when you think of it. Using baseball as a method to help you get through life is a unique way of acting. But as the description says, I am unique and thus have found a special way to solve all my situations.
One thing that baseball has given me is an object to rely on when necessity arrives. When the moment is appropriate to need help, that object may save your day, your week, or even your life. It is a big thing to say, but a big thing it is for me. Over the years of my young life I have found that nothing is too small or insignificant to have all the meaning of life. It only requires that you believe that that object is enough as it is for it to take a special place in you. If I were to tell about an object that goes with me, and knowing the event that goes with me every time, I will say that object would be a baseball. As insignificant as it may seem, when I have a baseball in my hand, I fell I have my destiny in my hands. In that moment, I control my fate, what happens with it, and how it arrives its destination.
It is safe to assume that everyone knows what a baseball looks like. But to me, it is way more than a simple round ball of string covered with leather and stitches. It is a tool I use to create a purpose in my life. In order to use a baseball, I need to be prepared to use it. Anyone can throw a baseball. Few find a purpose in doing it. When you find a purpose, a meaning in what everyone finds normal, you have found a purpose in life. To me this is what all human beings should achieve in life. Finding the most out of the least. There is no way—one may think—that a baseball has the importance necessary to take an essential role in one’s life. One may think that way, and you only prove one thing: you neither have experienced life at its greatest, nor are ready to face situations where the less makes the most part of it.
Leaving behind that simple object that takes up so much of me. Lets talk about another aspect that makes baseball part of my life. Training. It may seem that nowadays staying in shape is not only good for your image but for your health. To be a baseball player, one must be fit; and to be a pitcher, one must take the body to the limits and sometimes overwork it. The human arm is made in such way that the motion which pitchers use opposes the natural motion of the arm. For this reason, every time I get on the mound, months of training had to be done in order to make it through the game. By stating this, I look not more than to let know that when I play baseball, I make myself stronger not only mentally, but physically as well. I stay healthy and capable to practice the sport I love.
You may still not get the connection between baseball and a remarkable event that changes your life. Baseball is not a single event to me. It goes way beyond than a game. Every time I get on the field, there is a new experience waiting for me to make something out of it and apply it to my life. It seems impossible but I use baseball in every day. For example, I have already told I am a pitcher and when I do it, I do so with passion. It also takes concentration, for you will never be able to pitch without putting mind, body, and all the senses to work (at least not to be able to pitch correctly). Well, this helps me in real life. When I am about to take a test, and am really nervous, I just think or imagine myself on the mound and that is enough for me to realize that there is no test I cannot stand up against. It builds my self-confidence and actually helps me do stuff I never thought I would be doing.
I have stated how baseball has shaped my life, and how it shapes it on a daily basis. What is more than all that I may have written here is that baseball has been preparing me for the next step. I have just left my country to study and play the sport I love. It is tough considering I have to adapt to a whole new culture and different way of life. I have been speaking Spanish my whole life and learning English for at least fourteen years. I am fluent in English, but it still bothers me that sometimes I get mixed up in my mind, because although I am speaking English, I think in Spanish. It is like being born again, but with all your previous experiences being carried with you through this new stage of life. College is a big change for everyone who attends it for the first time. But for people that travel from another country, it can be just tough. One will miss his/her family, friends, relationships, and all the people you have been sharing your life with for the past eighteen years.
It may seem tough but as I have stated, baseball has prepared me for this. When I am on the mound, I am by myself. I pitch to a catcher and have all the defense backing me up—just like my friends and teammates—but it is different when you have control of the game. As a pitcher, I stand alone like I am right now in this country: survival of the fittest. It may sound a bit to dramatic, but it is just the way I feel. I honestly have to confess that if it were not for baseball, I would really have stayed in Puerto Rico and would never be here.
But that is just not who I am. I am a person that believes that everything happens for a reason and does not regret any event that may have occurred in my life. More than that, I learn from every bad experience. This I also link to baseball’s impact in my life. When troubles appear on a game, not only do I have to be ready to face them, but also know how to act when pressure is rising and victory about to slip from your hands. I do not regret any mistakes committed in a baseball game, I just work on them in practice and I apply the corrected way to the next game.
I cannot believe people will hide their problems behind that stupid and lame excuse. You do not have bad day; it is any other day. The difference is that what you may call a bad day; I call a teaching from life. We may not always agree with the path that life chooses for us but we have no choice but to adjust to it. Life will lie tough tests but not that they cannot be handled.
I have explained how baseball has become part of me. I am a student-athlete now in college and have many responsibilities. It is not an easy path to follow but many have done it and aced it. I expect no less than those who have succeeded. I will make it far. I will fulfill all my goals and quench all expectations others may lay upon me. I did not come this far to lose. It seems like my ego is climbing. But baseball has created an opportunity not many get. My parents have given all they have for me to be here and the least I can is do my best and strive well and become a professional or major league player. But this does not guide me.
I will not follow other’s dreams. I will make my own path, my own destiny. I am playing baseball at Christian Brothers University. I am making my dreams true. Is this paper supposed to be on an event, a single event, which has shaped your life? I am so sorry to disappoint readers but I cannot put the beautiful things baseball has done for me in one simple event. But to satisfy everyone I must say that I only have one life. This is my event. But throughout my single life, baseball will be a major factor in it until the end. I will play baseball until it becomes a threat for my health and even then I may not be so sane to do what common sense tells to be normal.
Have no regrets in life. Never look back; you may just end up missing what is ahead waiting for you. This is the kind of reasoning that does guide me. I owe much of it to baseball, for it has shaped my mind to not give up to what others yield easily. This paper not only shows my love for baseball: it shows I will do anything to prove anyone I am good enough to stand apart from the bunch. I will do anything possible to harvest answers to all of those who sowed doubts of my abilities and my destiny. I will live for baseball and baseball will live in me for the rest of my life.
It is usual to have a place where remarkable events occur. This place goes from being the normal place it may have been in the past, to “the” place that hosted that memory for which one rejoices now. The baseball field is “the” place me. Let’s be honest. How in this world, among rational human beings, can a field with a mound of dirt have an important place in a person’s heart? This is a question that might discourage some but not me. If I were to be led by other people’s words, I would have not gotten where I am now.
A baseball field is a box of surprises. It requires much more than playing the sport than to actually play on the field. For a baseball player to enjoy the thrill of playing the sport he or she loves, the field must be maintained in excellent condition. It is not only what you see but also what you must do and sacrifice to get what you see. Mow the lawn, rake the cut lawn, and pick it up. Rake the field—where the dirt is—and sprinkle it. Correct any imperfections on the mound and make sure no spot was left around the field. What took me a line and a half to write can take a group of ten people at least a day to do. To leave those outfields as green as pickles, the dirt as beautiful as if it was to pass an inspection by the government, and the mound, the mound... The mound is the most important part and what I dedicate most of my time to. The reason is simple: it is on the mound where I transform myself into another person completely, lose track of time, and achieve a mental toughness not shown everyday.
I do understand people when they say that baseball is way too boring, and that sitting in the same place for three hours is not the traditional way of having fun. My response is that, maybe you know what it feels to sit on the bleachers, but not what it feels like to be playing on the field. If you know how it feels, perhaps you understand my passion. Showing that baseball is more than the mere sport, requires passion. It is not the same to perform an action with passion and just doing it to get through the moment. When you do something with passion, you put mind and body into it. This combination gives you, most of the time, success over not only the event but life as well. Linking passion to baseball is easy. If you are pitching the ninth inning—which is the last inning in baseball—and are ahead by just one run when the count is three balls two strikes with runners in scoring position, adrenaline starts pumping through your body. You reach a tachycardia, and if you are really nervous, even your vision starts to blur. This is when the real players are set apart from the bunch. This is when passion sets the adrenaline unreachable for the weak-hearted. Only a passionate person would be able to conquer this type of situation. Letting not emotions, but instincts guide you in such situations may be the key to victory in a situation that seems likely to take it all from you.
To me, baseball has been a tool to overcome all of my limitations. It has taught me when I can rely on hunches and when I must use common sense to guide my actions. It is a weird method when you think of it. Using baseball as a method to help you get through life is a unique way of acting. But as the description says, I am unique and thus have found a special way to solve all my situations.
One thing that baseball has given me is an object to rely on when necessity arrives. When the moment is appropriate to need help, that object may save your day, your week, or even your life. It is a big thing to say, but a big thing it is for me. Over the years of my young life I have found that nothing is too small or insignificant to have all the meaning of life. It only requires that you believe that that object is enough as it is for it to take a special place in you. If I were to tell about an object that goes with me, and knowing the event that goes with me every time, I will say that object would be a baseball. As insignificant as it may seem, when I have a baseball in my hand, I fell I have my destiny in my hands. In that moment, I control my fate, what happens with it, and how it arrives its destination.
It is safe to assume that everyone knows what a baseball looks like. But to me, it is way more than a simple round ball of string covered with leather and stitches. It is a tool I use to create a purpose in my life. In order to use a baseball, I need to be prepared to use it. Anyone can throw a baseball. Few find a purpose in doing it. When you find a purpose, a meaning in what everyone finds normal, you have found a purpose in life. To me this is what all human beings should achieve in life. Finding the most out of the least. There is no way—one may think—that a baseball has the importance necessary to take an essential role in one’s life. One may think that way, and you only prove one thing: you neither have experienced life at its greatest, nor are ready to face situations where the less makes the most part of it.
Leaving behind that simple object that takes up so much of me. Lets talk about another aspect that makes baseball part of my life. Training. It may seem that nowadays staying in shape is not only good for your image but for your health. To be a baseball player, one must be fit; and to be a pitcher, one must take the body to the limits and sometimes overwork it. The human arm is made in such way that the motion which pitchers use opposes the natural motion of the arm. For this reason, every time I get on the mound, months of training had to be done in order to make it through the game. By stating this, I look not more than to let know that when I play baseball, I make myself stronger not only mentally, but physically as well. I stay healthy and capable to practice the sport I love.
You may still not get the connection between baseball and a remarkable event that changes your life. Baseball is not a single event to me. It goes way beyond than a game. Every time I get on the field, there is a new experience waiting for me to make something out of it and apply it to my life. It seems impossible but I use baseball in every day. For example, I have already told I am a pitcher and when I do it, I do so with passion. It also takes concentration, for you will never be able to pitch without putting mind, body, and all the senses to work (at least not to be able to pitch correctly). Well, this helps me in real life. When I am about to take a test, and am really nervous, I just think or imagine myself on the mound and that is enough for me to realize that there is no test I cannot stand up against. It builds my self-confidence and actually helps me do stuff I never thought I would be doing.
I have stated how baseball has shaped my life, and how it shapes it on a daily basis. What is more than all that I may have written here is that baseball has been preparing me for the next step. I have just left my country to study and play the sport I love. It is tough considering I have to adapt to a whole new culture and different way of life. I have been speaking Spanish my whole life and learning English for at least fourteen years. I am fluent in English, but it still bothers me that sometimes I get mixed up in my mind, because although I am speaking English, I think in Spanish. It is like being born again, but with all your previous experiences being carried with you through this new stage of life. College is a big change for everyone who attends it for the first time. But for people that travel from another country, it can be just tough. One will miss his/her family, friends, relationships, and all the people you have been sharing your life with for the past eighteen years.
It may seem tough but as I have stated, baseball has prepared me for this. When I am on the mound, I am by myself. I pitch to a catcher and have all the defense backing me up—just like my friends and teammates—but it is different when you have control of the game. As a pitcher, I stand alone like I am right now in this country: survival of the fittest. It may sound a bit to dramatic, but it is just the way I feel. I honestly have to confess that if it were not for baseball, I would really have stayed in Puerto Rico and would never be here.
But that is just not who I am. I am a person that believes that everything happens for a reason and does not regret any event that may have occurred in my life. More than that, I learn from every bad experience. This I also link to baseball’s impact in my life. When troubles appear on a game, not only do I have to be ready to face them, but also know how to act when pressure is rising and victory about to slip from your hands. I do not regret any mistakes committed in a baseball game, I just work on them in practice and I apply the corrected way to the next game.
I cannot believe people will hide their problems behind that stupid and lame excuse. You do not have bad day; it is any other day. The difference is that what you may call a bad day; I call a teaching from life. We may not always agree with the path that life chooses for us but we have no choice but to adjust to it. Life will lie tough tests but not that they cannot be handled.
I have explained how baseball has become part of me. I am a student-athlete now in college and have many responsibilities. It is not an easy path to follow but many have done it and aced it. I expect no less than those who have succeeded. I will make it far. I will fulfill all my goals and quench all expectations others may lay upon me. I did not come this far to lose. It seems like my ego is climbing. But baseball has created an opportunity not many get. My parents have given all they have for me to be here and the least I can is do my best and strive well and become a professional or major league player. But this does not guide me.
I will not follow other’s dreams. I will make my own path, my own destiny. I am playing baseball at Christian Brothers University. I am making my dreams true. Is this paper supposed to be on an event, a single event, which has shaped your life? I am so sorry to disappoint readers but I cannot put the beautiful things baseball has done for me in one simple event. But to satisfy everyone I must say that I only have one life. This is my event. But throughout my single life, baseball will be a major factor in it until the end. I will play baseball until it becomes a threat for my health and even then I may not be so sane to do what common sense tells to be normal.
Have no regrets in life. Never look back; you may just end up missing what is ahead waiting for you. This is the kind of reasoning that does guide me. I owe much of it to baseball, for it has shaped my mind to not give up to what others yield easily. This paper not only shows my love for baseball: it shows I will do anything to prove anyone I am good enough to stand apart from the bunch. I will do anything possible to harvest answers to all of those who sowed doubts of my abilities and my destiny. I will live for baseball and baseball will live in me for the rest of my life.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A Mere Object That Defines A Big Concept
If I was to tell about an object that goes with me, and knowing the event that goes with me every time, I will say that object would be a baseball. As insignificant as it may seem, when I have a baseball in my hand, I fell I have my destiny in my hands. In that moment, I control my fate, what happens with it, and how it arrives its destination.
Probably everyone knows how a baseball looks like. But to me, it is way more than than a simple round stone covered with leather and stitches. It is a tool I use to create a purpose in my. In order to use a baseball, I need to be ready to use it. Anyone can throw a baseball. Few find a purpose in doing it. When you find a purpose, a meaning in what everyone finds normal, you have found a purpose in life.
Monday, September 1, 2008
A New Assignment: A New Beggining
When thinking of an event worth of telling, an event that you have in your mind no matter what happens once time goes by, you have to look inside you for answers. There will be times where looking inside you will be a thrill, others, painful. But what really matters is that you should know yourself enough to be able to look inside you and get that event that you have decided for yourself it was worth remembering. Human beings choose when to remember an event, whether for a good or bad reason. No matter how good or bad was that memory, one thing is clear. The event was worth enough for you to remember it. This means it touched you and in some way, changed the way you think of things.
To look inside one's memory can be a challenge. As of now, it has proven difficult to look
for an event that I really think worth of remembering. Of all the possibilities, one does stands
out from the rest. I have been a baseball player my whole life. I see baseball with passion and
I do not allow people to call it as a mere sport. To me, baseball IS LIFE. As I grew into this sport,
I fell in love with it. It all started the normal way, making mistakes, learning from them as
anything in life. The thing is that as years passed, baseball serve me for more than fitness
and enternainment. I saw it as a discipline and since I am a pitcher, as a self-control tool. As
a pitcher, I have control of the game. If I do not pitch, the game does not continue. All of this
can grow to be a responsibility, for you need control of yourself and the things that affect your
day if you are to have a successful life.
And as I find it fun to write about my baseball past and how it affects my future, it is a thrill
to be writing about it in this blog, for I feel I leave a part of me for everyone to read. It seems
awkward but since I see baseball the way I see it, anytime is good to talk about baseball and
how it affects my life.
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