The 3rd Quarter

Alright now. It's the 3rd quarter. Here's where I start to hit my stride. My Junior year is where I think I made my biggest leap with the quality of my writing. I had Mrs. Topham last yeah for English 3 Honors and this piece was from our "frozen moment" assignment. We had to write a piece focusing on one moment in time. This piece is from when I participated in the Polar Plunge at Lake Bluff Beach. Doing the plunge was brutal and I think I did a pretty good job of describing the moment.

Men’s Club Coffee

The water is as dull as yesterday morning’s coffee. It is completely undesirable and is far from warm unlike a cup of coffee you might find at the Starbucks down the street. It’s the last thing you want greeting you at the start of your day. Forcing down a sip just gives you the chills. The mug nestles between your hands in search for warmth, only to find bitter, icy cold. You take a look down into this barren cup of coffee and there you’ll unexpectedly find me. I’ve just been submerged in this frozen ocean, along with fifteen of my other companions, each one of us trying to stave off the everlasting bitterness. We are in Lake Michigan. It’s a dark, rainy day in the first week of March. No, we are not being tortured or forced to partake in this swim. We are all proud members of Lake Forest High School’s Men’s Club and we are doing it for the better good of Special Olympics Illinois. We are doing this on our own time; just a bunch of high school kids, looking for an adventure.

While the red, cozy sweatshirt that I prematurely received as my reward for this bout with hypothermia rests warmly in my gray Adidas gym bag inside the heated tents just off shore, I stand frozen in belly button high lake water. I’m still alive and mobile of course, but I’m certainly frozen, one way or another. The sweatshirt reads ‘2009 Polar Plunge—Freezin’ for a Reason’ and all I can think about at the moment is the land speed record I’m going to break running to the heated tents to dry myself off, so I can indulge myself by putting on my new sweatshirt.

But all of that seems a light year away as I’m still wading in Lake Michigan, three months earlier than I should be. While I should be seeing kids building sand castles, sailboats floating endlessly near the horizon, and multi-colored beach balls bobbing in the water, all I can see are seasonal ice caps, men wearing drysuits, and the cold rain drops falling before me. These men who are wearing drysuits are really out here in the water just to tease us plungers. It’s like we’re sitting in jail cells watching the prison guards drive away after their shifts have ended, driving off to live their free lives. So while we’re suffering and chattering our teeth to the point of erosion, they get to stay comfortably warm. Unfair, if you ask me. Oh well though, that’s the way things play out sometimes. It’s like getting rear ended while driving your car. There’s nothing you can do about it.

Even though I am in a legitimate survival situation right now, I find my thoughts relatively clear. As the moans of my fellow plungers race through my ears and as the splashing of cold water has muffled into background noise, I find that my mind is at ease. Yeah sure, I am probably experiencing the worst pain I have ever had to endure in my entire life, but it feels right. I am with my brothers. Even though I don’t know these guys that well, I feel more connected to them than I ever have before. It’s almost like we are at war, holding off the last surge from our opponent, ready more than ever to be sent back to our native land for a home cooked meal, a nice warm cup of coffee, and that sense that everything will soon be okay. Yes, I am still lost at sea, but I know that feeling will come soon; that feeling that I’ll have when I am back at this lake three months from now, the rightful time when one should be at a lake. I’ll peer to my side and see two kids burying each other in the sand. I’ll look up at the sun and find that the dark, gloomy day in March has long passed, but I’ll still remember. It’ll stay with me forever. It’ll be like a tattoo on my back that no one ever really sees, but it will always be there. I will be sure to enjoy that day of reflection at the beach, but for now I’m plunging and there’s no way out.

Pretty solid quarter. Huge improvement from the first half. I liked this piece a lot. It wasn't too long, but I was able to get the message across that I wanted. Overall, this piece was just a lot cleaner than any other piece I had written my first two years of high school. I still have that sweatshirt that I received that day. Everyone always asks me about that day. I love talking about it. It really will be something I remember forever and I love that. Time for the fourth quarter. "Getch your popcorn ready!"