High School Shooting Narrative

Words: 2223
Pages: 9

The start of high school was an absolute mess, even with someone as organized as myself. New topics, ideas, and friends entering and leaving my life quicker than they ever had before. I had classes with seemingly random people who I would have previously never talked to, who would very quickly turn into close friends. This change was only accelerated by the addition of my fall season as a rower. To add some context, I am a 6’ 2” guy who is utterly useless at any sport that requires a drop in hand-eye coordination. I’ve tried them all, basketball, soccer, football, etc. One would think basketball would be the perfect game for me, but no. My shooting is abysmal, I play defense that would make every single NBA player sob uncontrollably, and my …show more content…
Thankfully, the determination part of my brain won out, and I was accepted onto the team. The days went on, rowing on machines stored in a park district building adjacent to a large warehouse with our boats, and on the Chicago River, which is just a 5 minute walk from Lane Tech High School, my High School of choice. We were doing thousands of grueling workouts which I am even scared of to this day. One, seemingly normal day, I biked over to practice, only beginning to imagine what the sadistic minds of our coaches would cook up today. As I locked up my bike and started slowly walking over the boathouse, I saw a mob of my fellow teammates hustling over to the park district building that housed our rowing machines. As they approached, I noticed a blank stare on all of them, akin to a soldier coming back from war, as if they had just heard some terrible news. I stood there and waited for them to come towards me and asked, “What’s up? What's going on?” My question cut through the silence like a knife, but as soon as I said it, silence once again took control as they continued to walk into the building, ignoring my