It's called a "Death Grip" for a reason.

. This fun story takes place on my uncle's farm up near Hickory, North Carolina. It was in Autumn, when the leaves were turning those nice Autumn-ish colors. My brother and I had arrived very hopeful; our uncle had just gotten a new four-wheeler. Oh the excitement was sprawled across our teenage faces. Little did we know, our uncle had also made us some welcoming dirt mounds for us to jump on the four-wheeler. All around, the area was now perfect for four-wheeling. The farm had two horse pastures, a woodland area with a nice, muddy ground, and now mounds of dirt for us master on this new ATV.

. So, my brother and I took turns exploring the ways of off-roading on this ATV. We would speedily ride up and down these large pastures, tear into the mud spots in the woods, as well as climb a conveniently placed hill in the woods. As the day drew closer to it's end, I awaited my turn on the four-wheeler in my uncle's golf cart. My brother was just making a jump on artificial hills, when he landed wrong and slammed his chin on the handle bars and groin on the seat. Needless to say, he was done for the day. So, being the greedy little miscreant I was; I boarded the ATV and took off on my own little adventure. One that I had done many times that day. I had found a natural bump in the ground in the adjacent pasture to the one with the man made hills that I had taken a liking to. So, I did a few small jumps on it for a while.

. By this point, you would think I had a good feel for riding this man made work horse. My, how wrong that judgment turns out to be. It was almost time to call it a day, when my mother comes out to watch a little bit of the action. My uncle yells to me, "Hey Ryan, show your mom the jump you've been working on". Not one to turn down a prime opportunity to show off, I line up the jump and took off. I thought, "Huh, this is probably the fastest I've gone today", as I was approaching the launch point. I hit the jump and hurdled through the air. Exhilarating didn't being to describe the feeling of getting this much out of a jump. This was undoubtedly the best jump I had achieved all day, even though I was coming to an uncomfortable distance with a barbed wire fence. Upon landing, I instinctively grabbed the brake and squeezed it tightly to slow myself down. Unfortunately, the adrenaline going through me locked my thumb on the throttle. This canceled out the brake and allowed me to show a certain barbed wire fence a bit of affection.

. Passing through the thick chicken wire that made up the lower section of the fence, I noticed my lower body leaving my head where it was. This was because the barbed wire that lined the top of the fence had me by the throat. Darn near doing a back flip; I landed softly in, luck behold, a huge briar patch. Upon landing, I launched back up, as if on a spring board, to check my neck for punctures. Fortunately, the chin strap absorbed most of the barbs leaving neck with a small little rub rash. The briars I landed in did most of the work to my arms, near the biceps. After such a horrific and humbling experience, I did not shed a tear. I simply laughed it off and inquired as to the condition of the four-wheeler.

NEVER TOO SAFE!

Up until now, the pink building was all I knew about school. Both my pre k and my kindergarten years were spent there. But sometime after Christmas, my teachers stopped our playtime at recess every day to point to the huge building on the other side of our schoolyard to tell us that very soon, we would be going to that building for school. I didn’t know whether or not to be happy or sad. I just knew that my cousins went to that school so at least I would be able to see them. I was satisfied with the thought of having my cousins nearby, but nothing could have prepared me, or my family for the events that would change my entire school year.

One day while sitting in class, the phone in Ms. Livingstone’s room rang. That was my first grade teacher. All I heard her say was, “Hello Livingstone’s room.” “Okay, let me pack her up and she’ll be right there.” “Adrienne” she said walking toward me, “Get your things together your mom is coming to get you!” I was excited because it’s not often that I was picked up early from school. As I sat on the outside of the front office waiting for my mom to show up I wondered what special place she was taking me today. For the next few hours, I sat on that wooden bench waiting for my mom who, I would learn later, was busy teaching her class in another county, and had no idea what was taking place.

At the end of the day, my cousin came up to the school to pick up her little sister and me and found that I was sitting on that same wooden bench outside of the office. When she inquired as to why I was sitting there, the office, who had forgotten that I was there, informed her that my mother had called that morning and was supposed to pick me up hours ago. When the office finally looked into the matter, they found that my mom had not made the call to pick me up. There had been some suspicious activity on the playground and that a lady whose identity could not be established had inquired about me earlier in the week. All of this would have been a case of mistaken communication, but my mom who worked nearly 90 minutes away had already suffered through two other frightening events. A couple years earlier, a strange woman tried to grab me by my hand and take me out of a clothing store. I lunged forward and yelled, “NO!” and the woman rang out the door. Not long after that, a man attempted to snatch me from my mother’s hand as we boarded the city bus. This incident at the school was the final straw. The school was not as concerned about the misunderstanding and didn’t find it necessary to increase security or alter the practice of sitting student outside of the office. Despite weeks of protest, recommendation, and accusations from the school that my mom as overreacting, I was
withdrawn from that school and eventually finished the year in a private school.

Interesting Experience

One of the most interesting experiences that I have ever had was also one of the most terrifying. I was eighteen years old, and about to graduate basic training. One of the more insane drill sergeants - I'll call him DS Luke for privacy - hated females. I don't know why, but he did. One afternoon, I was a battle buddy to a fellow basic trainee. Again, for privacy, I will call her PVT Thomas. PVT Thomas had a medical appointment for a hip fracture she had incurred on Warrior Tower. The only staircase that was navigable at the time was the staircase outside of the drill sergeant's office. So, in order to get out of the building, we had to go down the staircase and go through the drill sergeant's office. Needless to say, it was not pleasant to request permission to intrude upon a drill sergeant's space. On this particular day, DS Luke was in an extremely bad mood - even worse than usual. PVT Thomas and I knocked on the drill sergeant door and waited. When DS Luke opened the door, PVT Thomas froze, so I took the initiative and requested permission to speak. DS Luke didn't mind me, but hated PVT Thomas. That happens a lot in the military; even if a soldier is injured through no fault of their own, fellow service members tend to look down on him or her. He granted me permission to speak, and I informed him that PVT Thomas had a medical appointment. I will probably never know for sure why he slammed the door in our face, but I assume it was because she had not spoken for herself. Whatever the reason, PVT Thomas didn't appreciate DS Luke interfering with her medical treatment. So, in the boldest move I have ever seen from a basic trainee, PVT Thomas picked up her crutch and banged on the door. When DS Luke told her to go away, she got even bolder. She told him in very colorful language that she wasn't going anywhere except to her medical appointment. After this outburst, it got very quiet on the other side of the door. I literally thought for a moment that the last thing I heard before I got killed by a rampant drill sergeant was silence. All of a sudden, the door to the drill sergeant's office flew open, and DS Luke came through that door like a bull on steroids.
DS Luke was not small by any definition of the word; at well over six feet tall, he had to have weighed two hundred and fifty pounds at the least. But make no mistake - DS Luke was not fat. DS Luke was built like a bulldog that had been given growth hormones as a puppy. When this man came through the door to the drill sergeant's office, my first instinct was to run like my life depended on it because I was pretty sure that it did. Unfortunately for my fight or flight instinct, I knew that I couldn't leave PVT Thomas alone with this crazy drill sergeant. So, I stayed there at parade rest hoping that whatever happened would be quick. I didn't even bother hoping for painless because it was DS Luke, and I knew better. PVT Thomas wasn't intimidated by DS Luke, because by this point she was really angry. After a few choice words to DS Luke, I guess he had had enough. He swung at her, and had she not ducked at the last minute, he would have demolished her face. Behind the place where PVT Thomas' head had just been was the freezer door to the drill sergeant's refrigerator, and when DS Luke hit that, it bent in the middle badly enough that it would not close again. Then and there, I realized that DS Luke really was out for blood. I grabbed PVT Thomas, and pushed her towards the staircase. I told her to crutch her way up the stairs as quickly as she could. Meanwhile, I stayed there in the stairwell with an insane drill sergeant like I had some neurotic hero complex. It took me all of ten seconds to realize that if I didn't get out of his way, he was going to go through me to get to her. So I did what any sane person would have done, which was just the opposite of what I had done in trying to distract him. I moved. In about three seconds flat he had caught up to PVT Thomas, and was screaming in her face. PVT Thomas was backed in a corner, and looked like she was going to wet herself. For some reason, DS Luke decided that he wanted to kill us with the flagstaff, and he told us not to move.
The moment he turned the corner, I told PVT Thomas to get on my back. I was not about to wait around for death to come knocking at my doorstep! She jumped on, and for whatever reason, she kept her crutches in her hands. As soon as she was on, I made a run for it. I was down the stairs, through the (still open) door to the drill sergeant's office, and out of the building. In my defense, I was running with the weight of two people, and DS Luke was in really good shape. At any rate, before I even got to the end of the building, PVT Thomas was screaming that DS Luke was behind us. Just like in the movies, I turned my head just enough to see him. It was almost like I had to confirm that this crazy person was gaining on me. When the confirmation was made, even though I did not think that it was possible, I started running faster.
By this point, I could see the Alpha Company building, and from the sounds, I could tell that there was a formation there. Now, let me clue you in to the thought that was going through my head at the time; "I'm going to run until my heart bursts, because if the running doesn't kill me, HE WILL." I managed to get within earshot of the formation, and although I was unable to breathe enough to get any attention, PVT Thomas was on my back screaming like a banshee. So, Alpha Company got an extremely odd picture. Here was a 4'11" private with a 5'4" private on her back with crutches flung out like wings. Behind us was a crazy drill sergeant chasing us down with a flagstaff. I don't know if the angels had laced up their Nike's that day, and were running with us, or if we just had extremely awesome karma, but whatever it was I appreciate it. The command sergeant major of the battalion (I will call him CSM Santa for privacy) was outside of Alpha Company at that particular moment. As soon as I saw him, I had a new target. DS Luke was not going to attempt to impale us with the flagstaff when CSM Santa was anywhere near us. While I attempted to catch my breath, PVT Thomas told CSM Santa what had happened, and I just nodded along, still winded. At the end of the day, reports had been taken and DS Luke was in serious trouble. The rest of this story is boring, but I hope that I have entertained you up until this point!

Introduction

Although I don't have any readings or pertinent English topics to blog about today, I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Brook, but what many people don't realize is that my maiden name is "Shields." For anyone who watches Lipstick Jungle they know that Brooke Shields is a famous actress. Although my maiden name was almost identical to the actress', my "Brooke" is spelled without the "e." Spelling my name differently than most people named "Brooke" do reflects my personality in a way. I am eccentric, and I embrace that. I don't do things because that is what most people are doing, and I never really have. My talents are spread across the spectrum. In saying that, I mean that I have many talents, most of which are unrelated to each other. I am looking forward to this semester of English 111, mostly because I sense that this class is going to be the first English class that I have ever taken that actually challenges me to be me. For twelve years, my teachers squeezed what was "me" out of my writing. Now, even though I am told to be myself and to be creative, it is hard to unlearn all of the cookie cutter style of writing that I was taught. In short, I like a challenge and I think I have one with this class!