Kick, pass, dribble, score. That’s the goal in soccer, it’s all about the thrill, the excitement of hearing the ball go in the goal, or so I thought. It all started like any normal day, I woke up still feeling tired from the night before. I was prepared for the day ahead of me, everything was normal. Except, for once, I actually had breakfast, something so small yet I had rarely done. I was ready for a long day, it was the first day of summer and my friends and I planned on celebrating it. We were all on the soccer team and loved to play with each other, we’d have small competitions to see who was the best at the sport. The plan for the day was to meet each other at the high school fields and just hang there for a little bit. It was early but not too early, I was ready to win. Sparkly eyed, I ran out the door ready to win. See luckily enough for me the fields were close enough to my house to where I could walk. I saw my neighbors, said “hi”, and continued to walk away. That encounter was awfully weird to me, my neighbors, The Goldsmiths, were extremely weird; see they were an elderly couple that had their kid die a long time ago, but that’s not what freaked me out, they had a beaten down shack in their backyard and when I was little we would play hide and seek and one time I went to hide in their. One of the worst decisions, I walked in and the door shut open, a deep breathing was distinguishable in the back, the smell of dead bodies filled the air. Trapped all I heard we’re the words “welcome” in a soft tone coming from the Connor. Scared, I screamed but no one came to help me. It might not seem scary, but to any 9 year old thats enough to send them crying. The door eventually slammed open, the elderly couple was standing there, in a raspy tone he screamed “never come back here again.” I ran away, heart beating what felt like it was fast enough to go to the moon and back in seconds. Anyways, I finally got to the soccer field and shaken up by that encounter was hesitant to even continue playing, my friend brought a new kid to come play with us, he was amazing at soccer, he was doing moves I could never have imagined. His talent was unmatched, but he had this look on his face, distraught, he had an emotionless face. I asked for his name and he never answered. When I asked my friend what his name was they said Ben, Ben Goldsmith. I looked at him and he said “welcome” in the most eerily soft tone imaginable.

There I was sitting in a boring room with even more boring people, the teacher was rambling about a topic I had no interest in and my friends were somewhere else in the school doing god knows what. “knowing who you are can make learning easier,” said my teacher, “who cares, I thought to myself, I know I’m introverted and knowing that won’t help me learn any faster.” “I want each person in this class to take a personality test, I’m interested to see y’all’s different personalities.””Whatever” I thought, this is an easy 100, I’ll just answer fast and be done with it. I pull up the website, fill out some personal questions and boom done “protagonist, hmm interesting but that’s just not me, I don’t like to be the center of attention and nor do I want to be.”

“ring, ring, ring,” the school day has come to an end, I put my headphones in, turned on some ABBA and walk out of the school. I come home to an empty house, my mom was at work while my dad was out shopping, I threw my phone on my bed, picked it up again checking for anything. “nothing, no calls, no texts,” I passed out on my bed tired from a long day.

“Beep, beep, beep, woah what time is it? Eight o’clock? It’s already eight o’clock!?” I run out the door, putting on clothes and jumping into my mom’s car, I pull down the front seat mirror, “something different,” I think to myself as we turn into the school zone. I get out, say my goodbyes and head into school, people I’ve never seen before are staring at me as I walk through the front doors. The eyes staring at me is a lot of pressure, but for some reason it feels normal; feels like something I’ve been facing for years now. First period arrives, I walk in through the doors, and for the first time in the school year my teacher is trying to have an actual conversation with me. The day goes by fast and throughout the day more and more people are talking to me and I’m able to talk to them back without having a nervous panic attack. This is nice, but as weeks start to go by I start to miss the people that had my back since the beginning. The new friends I’ve been making feel fake, they seem to only like one thing, popularity. I’m scared of talking to my old friends, they probably don’t even remember me anymore. 

As the year goes on life gets progressively more boring, being fake isn’t fun, only caring about materialistic things isn’t fun either. I may have not had many friends when I was an introvert but at least I knew the ones I had were real and I could trust with anything. As I keep growing up the sadder I get, no one true, no one trustworthy.

yellow with sunflowers and blue with guilt

emotions running like seems in a quilt

live to be bold and be bold to fly

I’ve done lots in my life, but i’m not ready to die

life can be shown in many forms

however the best break from the norms

what if i have already passed?

will i have left a image that would’ve last?

flames creeps into my eyesight like weeds

i hope they’ll remember me by my creed

slowly fainting, I feel myself leaving

the flames slowly halt my breathing

game over i think to myself

This is the end, there’s nothing else

I am from water bottles

from cereal boxes and paper

(bright and nostalgic)

I am from the tulips

The oak tree

I am from red packets and potlucks

from Calvin and Julie

I’m from hoarders and givers

and from humble and loving.

I’m from birthdays and Christmas trees pickings

and cherish whats around not whats on the table

I’m from card games

I’m from Austin and my grandmas house

Stir fry and dumplings

from death of my grandpa

his loyalty to friends and family

gloomy and dark day

Owned a supermarket, always looked like a million bucks, and his jade bracelet

Back in China, in my mind, and on my grandmas hand

unforgettable

Lonely, a bright morning sun hits my feathers with smelting heat. Why am I here? What am I doing? I think to myself, the heat is starting to become unbearable so I take off flying not sure where I am going or what I’m going to do. The cool breeze hits me while I soar the sky when all of a sudden I can feel my stomach rumbling. I take a look around to see of there is any food nearby, I look down and can see something faintly in the water. I seems to be moving faster and faster as I fly with it, It’s bright red with some black, mmmmm looks delicious. It begins to slow down all of a sudden, perfect timing, this is my chance to swoop down for it. I dive down viciously, excited for my first meal of the day. I catch it perfectly in my mouth, I have it gripped tightly so it can’t move. It doesn’t put up much of a fight, “pfft,” too easy I think to myself. It’s too big for me to swallow in one go, so I take a bite out of it first. It has a weird texture; it’s far too bland for how colorful it is. I take another bite just to make sure i’m not being weird. I let it out of my mouth to take a closer look, in big black words it says “c-o-k-e.”

The sunlight hit my closed eyes for a surprising yet warm wake up call. A orange sunset was visible through the window pane asking to be stared at. The birds sung with the voices of angels and a gentle breeze was shaking the branches above was audible in the distance. A smell of pancakes and bacon filled the air with delight, one sniffle could not satisfy my unquenchable hunger that had built up over the night. “Dig in” yelled a loud voice in the distant, not being able to control myself, I stuffed my face full of the delicious and warm food.

Stuffed like a turkey I was contempt with myself, I was happy and ready for the day. A cup of coffee had given me energy for the day to come and I was excited for it. Today was no ordinary day, it was a day that marked many things, but most important of those things was finally being able to drive. I had been awaiting this day since I was 7 and got my first ever toy car. Thats where my interest in everything related to cars, ie driving, came from. My dad was an F1 racer and someday want to become just like him; It’s my dream, no my reality.

I sat at the DMV for hours waiting, which was stupid because the driving test itself was extremely easy. I passed with a perfect 100 which was about what I expected. The first thing I wanted to see with my license was the Austin city skyline, I had always dreamed of driving downtown to see the skyline by myself.

Anticipation – Johnnie Melancholy Vexed

I can see my home in the distance, heat waves making the vision of the entrance blurry. I walk towards the shelter swiftly, the entrance is ominous, dark, and creepy, but anything is better than stying outside. The outside heat made my joints and muscles feel ached and sore, but the darkness of the room cools me off. I cant’t see my surroundings but I can sense them, I feel the rough ground sink in with every step I take. With my next step the ground turns smooth and the floor turns chilled like Im walking on ice. I sniffle smelling something, “food!” I think to myself. I haven’t eaten all day, it smelled like steaks on a grill. My mouth watered in excitement, I hear my prey take a step and then It goes silent; “crunch,” I hear it take another. I lunge at it with full force; one bite and it’s done. It taste better than it smelled, a rush of saltines hit me and right after a wave of sweetness hit me. Just like bitting into a prime ribbed steak, it tasted so good.

After a hearty meal i’m ready to sleep, It felt like I had just had a Thanksgiving feast, nothing better. My dreams were simple, a sunset gleamed over the horizon, I was with my parents sitting and laughing. Contempt with the day, I accepted the fate of the next with a sense of fulfillment and went to sleep with a smile that said expressed a thousand different words.

Tick, tick, tick the thought of it had been spinning through my mind like gears. Mornings and nights were filled with adrenaline rushing images of how it felt; hand on the wheel, foot on the pedal, booking it 100 down the race track.

It all started when I was 8 and my uncle gave me my very first ever toy car, a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette, the car was beautiful, it was a bright red and had black rims with a black interior. Ever since that day I’ve been obsessed with cars and its all I ever wanted to play with all day and everyday. When I turned 15, getting my permit was the first thing I did to celebrate my birthday, my dad let me drive home and it was the happiest I had felt, well, ever. My first car when I was 16 was a 2005 Ford Mustang, it was old but it could go 0-100 in 5.6 and had 300 hp.

I worked for the local race track company so every now and then I was allowed to drive around the track, I just had to make sure to lock up once I was done. I spent days and nights at the track practicing my turns and learning my gears so I’d never mess up. Every now and then recruiters would come by during small local tournaments and races to see if anyone was good enough to be recruited. I would walk around and clean the stands looking down at the cars and would cretic there performances in my head,” too wide of a turn, needs to brake 1 second earlier.” After one of the tournaments one of the racers was saying his car was broken and the brakes were braking when he never even stepped on them, it looked fine to me so I asked him to let me drive it around the track to check to see what was wrong. I hoped in and started to slowly make my way around the track, as I kept going I began to pick up speed I came to my first turn and drifted around it flawlessly. I had been practicing this course for over a year now so I knew it without even having to think. I was flying through the course, I could feel it, the car was perfect, I knew there was nothing wrong with it. I finished with the third fastest track time ever and I hoped out of the car with a huge smile on my face. “There’s nothing wrong with the car,” I threw the keys back to him. The recruiter walked up to me and asked me for my name, he handed me a card that read “formal invitation” on it and thats when I knew that all my hard work and dreams of becoming a professional race car driver could actually become a reality.

There I was sitting in a boring room with even more boring people, the teacher was rambling about a topic I had no interest in and my friends were somewhere else in the school doing god knows what. “knowing who you are can make learning easier” said my teacher, “who cares I thought to myself, I know I’m introverted and knowing that won’t help me learn any faster.” “I want each person in this class to take a personality test, I’m interested to see y’alls different personalities.””Whatever” I thought, this is an easy 100, i’ll just answer fast and be done with it. I pull up the website, fill out some personal questions and boom done “protagonist, hmm interesting but that’s just not me, I don’t like be the center of attention and nor do I want to be.”

“ring, ring, ring,” the school day has come to an end, I put my headphones in, turn on some ABBA and walk out of the school. I come home to an empty house, mom at work, dad out shopping, I throw my phone on my bed, pick it up again checking for anything. “nothing, no calls, no texts,” I pass out on my bed tired from a long day.

“Beep, beep, beep, woah what time is it? Eight o’clock? Its already eight o’clock!?” I run out the door, putting on cloths and jumping into my moms car, I pull down the front seat mirror, “somethings different,” I think to myself as we turn into the school zone. I get out, say my goodbyes and head into school, people I’ve never seen before are starring at me as I walk through the front doors. The eyes staring at me is a lot pressure, but for some reason it feels normal; fees like something I’ve been facing for years now. First period arrives, I walk in through the doors, and for the first time in the school year my teacher is trying to have an actual conversation with me. The day goes by fast and throughout the day more and more people are talking to me and i’m actually able to talk to them back without having a nervous panic attack. This is nice, but as weeks start to go by I start to miss the people that had my back since the beginning. The new friends i’ve been making feel fake, they seem to only like one thing, popularity. I’m scared of talking to my old friends, they probably don’t even remember me anymore. As the year goes on life gets more and more boring, being fake isn’t fun, only caring about materialistic things isn’t fun either. I may have not had many friends when I was an introvert but at least I knew the ones I had were real and I could trust with anything. As I keep growing up the sadder I get, no one true, no one trustworthy.

TDEC is a writing format that is able to be used for most writing prompts. The T in TDEC stands for thesis and thats just basically how you hook people into reading your essay and also addresses the prompt of the writing. The D in TDEC stands for detail and that is basically just extra information that adds onto the main story of your Essay. The E in TDEC stands for elaboration and thats just basically your main story and how it fits into your prompt. And finally there’s the C in TDEC which stands for commentary and thats just your opinion on the prompt/story given. Overall TDEC has without a doubt helped me a lot in LA because it’s easier for me to have a format to writing than to just wing the writing style.