Anthony Rios Slice of Life

The First Flight

It was finally time, the moment I’ve been waiting for for forever, my first time flying an airplane. I’ve always wanted to be a pilot since I was little or at least had a great interest in flying ever since i went to a navy base when I was little and saw all the jets and helicopters and got to step foot in a F-15 fighter jet. At that moment I was basically instantly hooked on flying. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time and I finally got the opportunity so I took it. It all goes back to my 15th bday when my dad got me flight lessons as a gift and later that week we went to the airport and took to the sky.

It was a bright sunny day and me and my dad where on our way to the airport to meet with the instructor. There we would get briefing on what exactly what we would do and where we would fly around to. We finished our briefing and went to do a preflight check to the plane to make sure we were good to go. As soon as we finished we got in the plane and the instructor almost immediately told me to taxi onto the run and get ready for take off. It was so crazy I actually got to do this all myself and as soon as we reached our speed for takeoff we were off. I took basically almost full control of the plane for most of the time as we flew over I-4 and got a good view of universal and all of the surrounding area on the main road. It was amazing finally being able to do something i wanted to do for so long.

Almost as soon as we started and took off we had to come back and land. The instructor guides me back to the airport and surprisingly he actually let me land myself but with his help of course. We touched down surprisingly well and parked back to where we had first started with a successful first flight. It had been a great time while it lasted and it was an amazing experience for me, that i did not want to end. As I keep going on to get my pilot’s license I’ll need to get many more hours which is great. It was finally great to fulfil a dream of mine that i’ve been waiting for for a long time.

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A Hype Confrontation

by Karl

During one Saturday of March 2017, I got a chance to meet Richie Le. It was something I never really thought would happen, like what are the chances of meeting an idol you watch on Youtube everyday? On top of that, I don’t only watch Richie’s Youtube videos, but I also have a lot of inspiration from him and apply it to my lifestyle. There was a VASA event at UCF and I attended it with my friend Alex. I just had to go when we found out on social media that Richie Le was the special guest for the VASA festival. During school, I met up with Alex and our conversation kinda went like this,

“Yo, you know about that event comin’ up at UCF?,” and Alex answered, “Nah, why though?”. I told him, “This man Richie Le is the special guest for the event!”, and that’s when Alex said that it was mandatory for us to volunteer at this event.

When Saturday afternoon came by, Alex and I were on our way to the UCF festival. We walked around the campus until we found the event’s room and then we got settled in our volunteering station. Then fifteen minutes into volunteering, Alex tapped my shoulder and pointed to the entrance,

“Yoooo look it’s Richie Le!”

I thought he was messing with me ‘til I turned around and actually saw the guy. Richie walked past our volunteering station and got on stage to practice his rap. After a good run through, Richie got off the stage and sat in the back row of the chairs. Being me, I kinda left the volunteering station to say something to Richie. I approached him and I was like,

“Ay yo Richie,” and then he got up and turned around, “Ayy what’s up!”

Not gonna lie, I was a little shaky confronting him. We had a couple conversations throughout the festival and he had such a chill vibe. He gave me some motivation and talked about his experience growing up. I gave him my hat and he signed it before I returned to my station. The rest of the night went great watching all the performances with all my friends, especially at the end when Richie started doing some crazy giveaways on stage. This night was definitely a night to remember and I look forward to more moments like this one.

Fan Zone

by Ethan

We walked up the stairs to our seats as tip-off began. I felt the air thinning in the Amway as we elevated. Anthony and I eventually settled into the cool, hard nosebleeds. Every time we stood up we could almost touch the roof, but the view was better than any sunset I’ve ever seen. The Orlando Magic, led by Nikola Vucevic and new addition Terrence Ross, played against the Portland Trailblazers and one of the best backcourt duos in the league, 3J Mccollum and Damian Lillard.

The game continued and as time went by the sparkle slightly faded. Sloppy turnover after sloppy turnover had both franchises’ fans extremely upset. “The beauty of physically going to a game compared to watching at home is the fans around us.” I said laughing and pointing to the man who sat next to Anthony.

“Why is our team so bad, millions of dollars spent on someone who can’t hit a layup?” The inebriated 25 year-old Trailblazers fan screamed, then drank another large gulp of his beer.

“I know how it feels man, I’m a knicks fan.” I said, this year they were destined for their 4th straight losing season.

“You probably need this more then me.” he said as he offered me the rest of the cup and I shook my head.

“I drink because of them, they’re not helping my smoking problem either.” He said, then we busted out laughing.

Anthony said “High and drunk, well that explains a lot.” as laughter began between the two of us continued.

The game continued as the Blazers started to go on a run. We screamed at Elfrid Payton, a player me and Anthony share a burning hatred towards. At that point he made a crossover move with a fancy reverse finish.

“Watch, he’s going to do something extremely stupid, because he thinks he’s on fire right now.” I complained being extremely tight at the moment.

On the very next possession Payton jacked up an ill-advised three-pointer. Having two halves of the same brain we shook our heads simultaneously. Frank Vogel, the Magic’s head coach, then called a timeout and proceeded to yell at Payton. That ended up being the end of the 3rd quarter and we went to leave to meet our boss. We traveled with the Florida Flight, a minor league basketball team, to their own personal locker room. I’m the part time announcer for the flight and Anthony is the mascot “Jet Lag.” We both went to set up as the Magic cheerleaders walked by. Anthonys mouth dropped to the floor and my eyes became wide. Me and Ant’s eyes met. The entire room was silent.

One of the players in the room chuckled and said “Y’all a bunch a weak punks, a couple hot girls walk by and y’all going silent. Sad.”

Everyone on the team started making excuses for why they weren’t staring. The game ended on a Blazers victory and I went to go set up the audio and video. I walked through the tunnel and went on to hardwood of the Amway Arena. The same floor greats such as Penny Hardaway and Dwight Howard played on. I feel at awe, and full of excitement. I went to go set up the camera and the microphone and to my excitement CJ Mccollum walked by. I told him I was a big fan and I was just super happy to talk to him. Anthony came up and was told by the owner he wasn’t allowed to talk to the players as the mascot. You could see him frown through his skin suit. I went back to setting up and Ant started jumping up and down pointing behind me.

“Speak up” I said, messing with the poor kid.

I turned around and to a great surprise, I saw Mo Harkless and Damian Lillard, starters of the Blazers.

I walked up to them and said “Yo dude, huge fan.”

I stood in front of them awkwardly, palms sweating and wearing a jacket of goose bumps, staring for what felt like 5 minutes and then went back to work. We had a charity game where a cancer patient was celebrated and allowed to go and play with the Flight. Me and My Co-worker, an independent journalist named, Danny Thompson, commentated the game. The fact that the organization would make a little girl’s day brought a warm sensation to my heart. When the game ended I thanked the owner of the Flight for allowing me to come, then Ant and I left with joy and excitement just to have an amazing experience in our lifetimes.

Pokemon Gone

 

By Michael, period 7

 

It was the summer of 2016, July 16 to be specific. This was the period of time that the whole world was happily playing Pokemon Go, the new hip game that everybody and their mothers were playing. This game brought joy to me and many others for that period of time from July to August. It felt as if the whole world became united for a short term,I would actually go outside and talk to strangers. Yes, that’s right, I actually went outside and socialized because of this game, im sure im not the only one too, since everywhere you looked, there were people staring at their phones hunting these digital creatures.

Now Pokemon Go had these things called “Pokestops” and in places that had a high concentration of people like downtown areas, the piers of beaches and amusement parks and things like that, there were TONS and I mean TONS of Pokestops and people. Since there were so many Pokestops, there were also many Pokemons that spawned.

So since it was summer and Pokemon go came out, it could have meant only one thing for my friends and I… we went Pokemon hunting. From down in Miami Beach, all the way up to Charleston North Carolina, we would be hunting for these Pokemon. It was truly a happy time of my life… then school started again and the game just started dying and yeah that’s pretty much it. I still have the game installed on my phone because it has sentimental value, but I haven’t touched it since last year. R.I.P Pokemon Go: 2016-2016

Little One

by Osaya

Frequently enough throughout the course of one’s time, you have an older sibling being the hero and role model to the younger sibling(s), providing wisdom and protection to them as many times as it may be deemed so. On the first day of March, the tables turned, and I was the one needing the protection and love from my younger sister. It was the day that my sister was diagnosed with cancer. It was the news that shattered my heart into pieces and my mind couldn’t even fathom how such a thing could be happening.

Staying strong was and till this day is the only option that I could continue to have, but seeing your 13 year old sister look so fragile and so unlike herself made it impossible to do sometimes. As my sister told me the news I knew she could tell that I wasn’t okay and she immediately hugged me telling me, “It’s okay. I’m gonna be okay. Everything happens for a reason and although this may seem like the worst thing to happen everything will come into place with time.” With those words I instantly felt gratitude and wiped away my tears as quickly as they came. “I love you little one,” I whispered softly.

Early Christmas Miracle

by Sunayana, Period 7

My family and I stayed at Yosemite National Park for the past few days embracing the mountains, the freezing weather, and nature. It was an experience that I would never forget. Now it was time to say farewell. Everyone was crammed in the car ready for the long drive back down the mountains. I glimpse outside and notice the wind blowing on the trees making them lean to one side. It was another chilly day in California. My dad turned up the heat allowing the warmth to radiate towards the back of the car. The drive was 6 hours so taking a nap was a necessity no doubt. I placed my head on the window and drifted off to sleep.

 

I awoke to my brother pushing me. I groaned, not ready to wake up, and then retaliated by hitting him on the hand but that didn’t stop my brother. He continued to shove me until I was wide awake. I glared at him but he disregarded me looking outside instead.

 

“LOOK! SNOW!!!” my brother screamed as he pointed towards the window.

 

I gaze outside to see snow falling soundlessly. Snow coated the trees as if it was a jacket. Blankets of white covered the rocks and grass leaving nothing of any other color. It was beautiful. The car screeched to a stop next to a cabin which also had snow glistening on it’s roof. As I opened the door the cold gushed in. I ran out the car and twirled around in the snow. My fingers started to feel numb and my nose and cheeks began to turn red, but I didn’t care.

 

I reached my hand out and the snowflake fell upon it.

It was stunning.

It was an early Christmas miracle.

Geese!

by Donielle

On July 4th, 2015 I visited my aunt,her fiance, and my cousins in Virginia. I was accompanied by the mother, sister, and grandmother. My aunt’s fiance owned a massive white boat and we were all going to sail to Washington D.C. to see the monuments but most importantly the fireworks.We had to leave the dock early in the morning so we awoke and dressed accordingly. We had gotten to the dock early so we went to Dunkin Donuts. While we were gone, they set up the fishing poles and prepared the boat. As we left, there were over two dozen geese swimming the water by the perimeter of the boat.

We had to dodge many dark brown rock-shaped objects in the water. It felt like forever until we got to the area. It was swarmed with other boats with our same agenda. Although the sun was setting, we could see so many lights, as the monument lights had started glowing, as did the streetlights and car headlights. The first “BOOM!” in the dark sky caught my attention. It was bright red. Soon, all the colors of the rainbow appeared in the sky, arranged in different shapes and sizes. Eventually, we went back after the fireworks ended cruising back in the dark while my eyes closed shut.

Spillane here, Donielle, this post brought me back to Lesson from Geese! love the image and your story.

 

 

 

Judging the Judge

by Andie, Period 7

 

     Last month in February, I performed my annual piano festival piece at the UCF’s Performing Arts building. This is now my eighth year here and boy do I still get nervous EVERY TIME. You may be wondering by this point how I’m still nervous. Truth is, I don’t even know myself. Each year, I practice rigorously two weeks prior to the performance (and also once in awhile during the other months I’m given), doing whatever possible way to have my two songs memorized, note by note. My pieces weren’t difficult compared to the very high-leveled students, but I just wanted that instant gratification of feeling proud when I’m done performing them. As my mom parked the car, I walked out and entered the building automatically, knowing what to do next without hesitating; collect your score sheet, check the room on the sheet, go to that room on the sheet, and wait outside the room’s door nervously for your turn. I did just that and checked the list to see when it was my turn. Turns out that I was actually next.

    A young girl before me walked out and I was summoned by the judge’s assistant into the room. I handed my books to the judge’s assistant, who later then proceeded to hand my books to the real judge. The judge told me to warm up the piano as she got ready. I played a scale going up the piano and as I was about to go back down, she abruptly and strictly told me to stop playing, but I hadn’t finished testing the piano out. All I got from “warming-up”, was that the piano was extremely stiff and muffled, and this was not good news for me. When I was told to begin, my mind went blank and for the first five measures of my first song. My left hand played the completely wrong notes and my ears cringed at the sound of it and I was so sure the judge heard it too. As I was playing, I couldn’t hear the notes due to the piano’s muffled-ness, so I often missed a few notes here and there. Playing my other song felt like forever and then it was all over. I collected my books from the judge who didn’t even look up at me or say anything when I finished. Based on her attitude, I knew for sure what my score would be and I had the worst feeling. Six months of practice down the drain. I walked out the room feeling defeated as ever.

    That following Saturday, I received my score from my piano teacher. Throughout the week, I was mentally preparing on how to react to my low score. As my teacher handed my score sheet, she exclaimed a loud, “Congratulations!”, and I was shocked. I got a superior!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Glancing over at the “comments” section on the paper, the judge wrote all the things I did well while playing. Nowhere to be seen, was the comment about my huge mistake or even my minor mistakes! I assumed she didn’t hear them because of the piano’s stiffness and muffled-ness, and I was so glad she didn’t. That day, I felt as proud as ever and I realized a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Babies

by Brilynn, Period 6

My Aunt Katie’s bunnies had babies!

Her Bunnies names are Nibs and Precious, they had 6 bunnies. Three of the bunnies are black like their mom Precious, and three of them are white like their dad Nibs.

My Aunt Katie sent me a picture through snapchat and a video immediately after. I couldn’t believe it I literally started screaming!

My Aunt had no clue that Precious was even pregnant. She told me that she went to feed them this morning and found the babies in the cage with Precious! She was totally surprised and was freaking out! Today was a great day!

 

Quick update:

We only have two bunnies now….

Four of the bunnies didn’t make it…

We lost all three of the black ones and one of the white ones…

I pray we don’t lose anymore…

I am nervous the other two won’t make it…

I am nervous what will happen to Precious if she loses all of her babies. I know some animals get really depressed and won’t eat after they lose their kids. I don’t want that to happen to Precious.

Competing in German

by Jackie, Period 4

I’m a huge believer in the fact that the amount of work you put in will reflect how you do. This ties into the competition I attended on Saturday, March 4. I participated at FASG, which is a German competition where you participate in three events and at the end awards are handed out.

The first event was a poem I had to memorize. I know I could have done better if I hadn’t started memorizing the poem two days before the competition. I was really nervous to have to say my poem but when it was finally over there was a huge wave of relief that swept over me because that was the hardest part. I did okay for the most part. I knew all the words in my poem but I forgot the order in which they went. I took two long pauses which they took points off for but it’s hard to memorize something that’s not in your native language.

After the poems were the two tests: vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary was way harder than grammar. I thought I knew vocab but I was wrong. Grammar was my favorite event because it was the easiest and I like to think that my grammar skills are pretty good in German.

Lunch was also really great. The sandwiches were huge and also delicious. It also came with a cookie and chips which was a nice surprise. I sat with my sister and a couple friends and we played a game where you had to try to sell an item and convince the other people to buy it. We were crying because it was so funny. To pass the time we also played cards outside which was also fun.

I didn’t win, Alexa did, but it’s okay because we had a good time. By then it was time for awards. I ended up placing second, third, and fourth. The cool part about the awards is that the medals were black, red, and gold which was cool because those are the colors of the German flag. I’ll be back next year for sure. It was an amazing experience and I’m really glad and proud of myself for even going because I had my doubts. I’m also really thankful for being able to experience this with my sister Amanda and my two friends who also did really great, Alexa and Alec. I’m excited for next year because I know I can always improve and do better than I did this year.