Scaredy-Cat
Another normal day it is. The sun is beaming down on us, radiating on the jungle trees. These trees still help give us proper shade when we want to stay out of the heat. I look and there’s a monkey hanging on a tree, all along and with a facial expression of fear. There are some other animals I will see on my daily journey that are all by themselves now, it’s a sad sight quite frankly. It’s perfect when it’s one of my prey and it becomes feasting time, but I feel bad for the other animals. I can understand what they’re going through, though, as most of my family has been wiped out as well. I don’t know why the human’s like our orange and black stripped fur so much, but now I’m always on the run. I don’t want to be another victim for human medicine, and I don’t know the last time I’ve seen another one of my own in this forest. My last home was destroyed, trees getting knocked down left and right, so I’m hoping I can settle down in this forest for a while before the humans come back. I know I may appear as a dangerous cat, but I’m constantly living a life of fear because I know they will come back. I’m scared for my life, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get help.
Riding Off in the Sunset
It’s another typical hot, summer day. The year is 1872, and no commotion is going on in the peaceful little town in Arizona known as Valentine. These Western states live a simple lifestyle: small family businesses, local taverns for get togethers, stables for the cowboys to keep their horses safe, and many farms throughout the country land. This town in southern Arizona happened to be in prosperous times, and there wasn’t a care in the world. Well, actually, there was something that they cared about. It wasn’t just something either, it was someone. His name: Lovin McGunnin.
Lovin was a native of the town, lived there almost his whole life. He’s a thirty-five-year-old male who is Caucasian, about five foot ten in height, one hundred and fifty pounds, brown eyes, and clean-cut brown hair. Presentation was everything to Lovin, and he was known for having the most groomed hair in all of Arizona while also being the most fashionably dressed. His clothes from the finest stores in all the Western United States, he never ceases to impress while striking fear in the hearts of men. Nobody questioned how he could afford these luxurious clothing, and nobody wanted to know. Another detail that made Lovin so known: his glamorous horse. Known as Dark Knight throughout the West, the black stallion was one of the biggest horses anybody had every seen. He was well groomed, well taken care of, and was also one of the fittest horses anybody in the land had seen. Nobody can ever catch up to Dark Knight and nobody can get away from him, it’s just a fact. Why would people want to try and do this?
You see, Lovin McGunnin is a Western outlaw. He’s a rogue cowboy that loves to live on the edge, doing whatever he wants whenever he wants. This includes terrorizing the little town of Valentine, whether that’s stealing from the stores, robbing from the bank, causing commotion in the taverns, and getting local cowboys involved in duels. Even though he may be a notorious outlaw, he never travels alone. His posse consists of five other outlaws: Dante Thomas, Billy Watson, Arthur Morgan, Jeremiah James, and Slingin’ Sammy. This group went by a name simply known as The Boys, and the infamous group of gunslinging outlaws were known throughout the Wild West.
Lovin McGunnin and The Boys made their presence known not just in Valentine, Arizona, but the whole West for a good ten-year period. They were top dogs and on top of the world. The problem now, though, is that they want their crime days to be over. They had their glory and their fun, and now they want to settle down in a town and live out the rest of their lives among a community. McGunnin, specifically, wanted to live off on a farm and peacefully own acres of land out in the country. The problem with this is that he wanted to settle in his hometown of Valentine because that was where he was born and raised, but the people of the town don’t forget the things he has down. He’s shamed there and he’d always have to be on alert for intruders because nobody trusts him. He tried to gradually fit in with the townspeople, but it wasn’t easy. Many of the times other people in the taverns would try to start fights with him, even if he was sitting at a table by himself minding his own business. He’d also get frequently kicked out of stores and markets just because of his history, even though he might be there just to buy some new clothes he wanted to wear for working the farm or the food he needed to eat for the week. This would go on for many months, as obviously it wouldn’t be an easy thing to get accepted right away. As time went on and he caused no he continued to cause no commotion while dealing with the townspeople harassing him, though, some people within the town started trusting him. Less fights went on, he was less frequently kicked out of buildings, and he didn’t harm the peace in the town. The townspeople realized he really wanted to change.
Lovin McGunnin would live peacefully on that farm in the country acres of Valentine that he always wanted to, and he was even able to start up a family. He married a pretty gal by the name of Belle Shoemaker, who worked as a bartender in one of the taverns known as the Salty Splatoon. That was where he first met her, in fact. They would also have three kids together, two girls and a boy. The kids would help with the small chores around the barn, but mainly had the time of their lives running along their land. McGunnin finally had all he wanted going for him and showed that change was possible. The rest of the members in The Boys would go on to have their own taste of personal fulfillment as well too. Dante Thomas worked at the Salty Splatoon as well with Belle, Billy Watson owned his own shooting range and helped people how to properly and efficiently use guns, Arthur Morgan worked as a store clerk in one of the local markets, Jeremiah James became a part time owner of a bar called Brothers, and Slingin’ Sammy would become the founder and owner of a restaurant franchise named after him, called Slingin’ Sammy’s Pub. They all resided in Valentine, Arizona as well, not causing a lick of trouble since they changed their lifestyles. The Boys stuck together, and The Boys were there to stay.
My Path
A significant moment in my education was when I was a senior in high school. From all the way back in 8th grade up to my senior year in high school, I had always taken engineering course and I thought that it was going to be the course of education I was going to go towards. I really enjoyed it when I first took it in the 8th grade and all the assignments we had to do I was always getting good grades on. I still enjoyed the courses I took my freshman and sophomore years. I was also learning from one of my most favorite teacher I had in all of high school, Mr. Putman, and learned from him in 3 of my 4 years in high school. They were a lot more difficult than 8th grade, obviously, but they were still interesting things to learn about and I loved doing all the designing that we did on the computer. It was also a frustrating course for me at times thought because of the gradual difficulty. Once I got to my junior year and had a civil engineering course in my 2nd and 3rd trimesters with a different teacher, it went from a gradual disinterest in engineering to just completely not wanting to do it. Civil engineering was the actual specified course of engineering that I was super interested to going into once I got to college, but after I took that course with that teacher, including the assignments we did and his teaching methods, just didn’t make me want to go down that path anymore. It made me wonder if all civil engineering was going to be like what he had us do and showed us, and if it was going to be like that then it was something, I wanted no part of. So senior year was when I took my first ever business course, and I took accounting in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of that year. That was when I met my new favorite high school teacher ever, Mrs. S, and accounting was a class that I excelled in in high school. I was understanding everything that was being taught in the class, it was a course that made me want to learn more about and work hard on inside and out of class, and I got a lot of trust from my teacher. There was a point in time in 2nd semester where she accidently completed everything for all courses a week too early, so she had a private conversation with me and we formulated things to do for the next week to then prepare all accounting classes for the final exam the next week. And because of her and my experience in accounting, that’s what became my first major for the first two years of college. Even though I would end up changing my accounting major, she was the reason I became interested in becoming a business major and she’s been the influence that’s helped drive me in business education all the way up to this point. We keep in contact with each other as well, as we are both Facebook friends with each other and every so often exchange messages with each other. So, thanks to her and my senior year of high school, I’ve found my path in school that I am going to take all the way to graduation.
Another Day, Another Meal
I am currently in the cafeteria eating some food and getting some homework done before I have practice at 5pm today. I am sitting at one of the back tables right by the salad bar and the little room where you put your dishes once you are done eating. I have had a salad and some pasta to eat before the practice. I have already eaten lunch and it is about 3:45pm, so I did not want too much to eat before I practice, or I might be afraid of throwing up. Tuesdays are always our hardest practices of the week, so I have to make sure I get my assignments I want to get done finished up before the practice or I will not want to do it once I get back to my apartment because I will just want to eat dinner and then pass out since I am so exhausted. I thought it would be a good idea to work on this ahead of time before class tomorrow because I will have a crap ton of homework I have to worry about tomorrow, and obviously I would have much more fun doing creative writing compared to my other homework, so I decided to spend my time working on this first.
The Treasured Vacation
A place I have visited on many occasions is a little motel called The Sea Chest that we stay at every year around the 4th of July. It is located in Treasure Island, Florida, and it is a peaceful little area. The outside smelling of ocean sea as our hotel is right off the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. When you walk along the beach, the sand is soft and warm. Your feet are sinking into it. The main area of popularity is the pool at our motel, as that is where most of our family and family friends hang out at throughout the break. People will swim in the pool for hours, taking casual sips of their drinks while they are floating around on the pool tubes that are provided. It’s paradise. Another great part of going here on vacation is the food. Every year I will get the incredible grouper sandwich that is provided at almost every restaurant you go to. The Florida seafood is amazing. Grilled, blackened, fried, breaded, whatever you are feeling. It is the best food I will ever eat anywhere. It has been a traditional vacation for our family since the time my mom married my stepdad, and I am glad I’ve been a part of this vacation. I’ve made bonds with many of people that are family or friends of my stepdad’s side, and it helps me feel closer to him each time we go. It has become a place I look forward to visiting every year, and I am excited to go back again next summer.
The Beautiful Game
I love the feel of my cleats,
The trashed ones for practice
The fresh ones for games
I love the feel of a perfect field,
The turf we use to warm up
The turf we grind on for game day
I love the feel of a soccer ball,
The ping of a perfect pass
The blast of an amazing shot
I love the cheering crowds,
The stands erupting after a goal
I love my soccer team and my season
The heart, passion, and determination shared by all
I love the feeling of winning
The blowouts and the gritty matchups
I love you
The beautiful game
Dear Momma
The bond we share
I cannot replace
The feeling of care
Is thrown in my face
You try your best
And it’s clear to see
The wonderful things
You do for me
I hope one day
I can do the same
Repay, if I may
The woman I got my name
I’m forever grateful
To have you by my side
One who is never hateful
That cannot hide
You give me hope
That I long pray
The ways you act dope
I hope never go away
When you’re by my side
And just being you
I am grateful for you mom
I will always love you
Stuck
The door always closed
He doesn’t want anybody in
He’d rather be alone
The floor is a mess
He has come to terms with it
The atmosphere is irreversible
A loss of motivation
This isn’t something new
It comes and goes from time to time
He forgets when it started
It’s a feeling he’s felt for a long time
And it may never go away
Mitchell's Imagination 