Creative Writing Portfolio 2006-2007 Forest Park

1. Creative Writing Portfolio 2006-2007Forest Park Matthew McCracken 11 Mrs. Dowling

2. Introduction

3. Table of Contents Portfolio 1 My Scary Dream Nemesis on the Court Laughter Equals Happiness Why I Can’t Stop Going? The Court on a Hot Summer Day My Father Acrostic Poem Reflections

4. My Scary Dream

5. Nemesis on the Court

6. Laughter Equals Happiness

7. Why I Can’t Stop Going?

8. The Court on a Hot Summer Day

9. My Father

10. My Father Continued

11. Acrostic Poem

12. Reflections

14. You are now entering the second part of my Creative Writing Portfolio. I hope you realize the major steps I am taking this year to become a better and more creative writer. I hope you enjoy my writing, and have a great day.

15. All my life I’ve wanted only three things, One of them consists of a finger and a ring, The day I get to see the one I love, In her beautiful dress the color of a dove, My wish is to keep loving this girl with all my heart, Stay in love until death do us part, Happiness is all I desire, An attribute that I so much admire, To be able to live life to the fullest, My life known as neither the greatest nor the dullest, My wish is to live life like there is no tomorrow, To live life in happiness instead of sorrow, I wish to become a big-time journalist, Much better a profession than a young man whose only option is to enlist, To be able to do what I love and get paid, Most people would say that I’ve got it made, All in all, I just wish to be me, For I will not be remembered as just another fish in the sea.

16. “Why didn’t I treat my parents the way they deserved to be treated?” I kept asking myself at an altitude of 10,000 miles. With my skin being pulled back like a rubber band about to be shot, I thought to myself, “Is my life over?” All I could think about was if I had accomplished everything I wanted to in life. Did I try my hardest in high school? Did I find the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with? Have I been a success or failure? Let alone the fact that my body had become a perfect sculpture of Mr. Stretch, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about my life. As questions contemplated in my head like a pin ball machine, I saw “the light.” With smiles bigger than any Mr. Potato Head ever made, I saw my brother fly by me through the air with two thumbs up. I realized that this wasn’t the end of the road for me, it wasn’t the beginning of the end, it was just skydiving! Sometimes, in life, we tend to get too philosophical. Thinking about when we are going to die, and how it’s going to happen. When people think about this, like while skydiving, it takes away from the fun in life. You live to die, not die to live, so make the best out of life while you still have it.

17. I love basketball more than I love kisses, When it comes to my sport, I’m very superstitious, I never play without stretching first, Getting injured is like a never-ending curse, You’ll never feel one-hundred percent again, No matter how many times you pray and say amen, An injury, big or small, lasts forever, Will I ever not be superstitious… NEVER!!!

18. When you think about becoming successful, you usually think about the amount of money one has. That is the problem in today’s society- you aren’t successful if you aren’t rich. Success to me is something way more than making money. If one family has a father whose a rocket scientist, makes over one million dollars a year, has two kids, you would probably think to yourself, “Damn, I want to be part of that family.” If another family has a father whose a kindergarten teacher, makes roughly $40,000 a year, and has five children, you would probably say, “Damn, he should slowed down with the making of the children!” Most people that are rich today aren’t happy. They don’t give back to society that much, and many times have to actually look for ways to spend their money. That might sound bias, but these same people are bias towards us because we can’t pay the bills in time, or can’t afford to buy our kids cars. They laugh when they see how our fathers don’t come home from work until late at night, or they laugh when they see single mothers working their asses off just to make “ends meat.” But you know what, people who are in situations that rich people laugh about; you can really laugh in their face. Even though they can buy any dinner they want, have anyone come with them, and wake up anytime in the morning, they still can’t have dinner with your family. I’d much rather have Brurger King with my family than to have a T-bone steak with Bush or Puff Daddy. I like who I am, and how I was made. I like having to work hard to get what I want. I like being challenged by others. I like having to work for money, not inherit it. Even though I will get frustrated at times, I’m human. It would be weird if I was happy with not getting straight A’s, or not making a sports team. I strive for perfection. I’m successful because I’m happy. Think to yourself, are you happy with who you are, what you are, how you are, and where you are? If you are, than I consider you to be a successful person. If not, maybe you are rich.

19. Life is full of obstacles, both small and great, Changing constantly from child to adult, Do what you want before its too late, God looks as unfulfilled lives as an insult,   Changes are both bad and good, Take what you are handed, No excuses after life about I should, would, or could, Strife for perfection, demand it,   Without dreams, life will go by like quicksand I'm telling you this now while you're still young, Life and death go together hand in hand, But, Succeed or fail, I'll always love you son.

20. “I cannot take this anymore,” I shouted. “How am I ever supposed to become a respected officer if I am being trained by the biggest imbecile on the face of this planet,” I questioned to myself as he told me to clean the ship for the 3rd time that day! “Son, you will be a private with your own son if you do not clean those dishes like you are told,” shouted Colonel Jason Carlos into my ear as loud as he could. How does he expect me to follow his orders when he is making me do things that is downgrading to my image as an up and coming officer? If he would give me the chance to do some real work and lead in some sort of way, he would see that I am the future, and that he will be the past. It is 2:07 in the morning, and yet again, I am the only one awake on the ship. I just cannot seem to get used to sleeping on these little box cushions that they call beds. It’s either that, or the fact that I am working my ass off 12 hours a day for nothing other than a lousy salary. I joined the navy because I have dreamed about sailing since I was little; I figure why not protect my country while doing what I love: the perfect 2 for 1 deal. I love the ocean, it makes me feel as if there is nothing else on earth, and that you are free as a bird in the sky. It is 6:04 in the morning now, and I have officially gotten the most sleep I have gotten since I entered the navy: 2 hours and 23 minutes! This morning doesn’t seem regular to me, it seems a little too quiet. Usually, 6:04 am to the Navy is like noon for children outside during Summer break. “I love looking out into the docks off of base, and seeing the power of our navy ships as they are lined up by their type,” I thought to myself as I took my usual 2-mile run down the boardwalk. “GET DOWN! RUN! IT’S THE DAMN JAPS!” I heard as you could see unanimous planes crashing into our ships as if they did not care. It is not that they didn’t seem to care, but why in the world would you kill yourself to hopefully kill another human being; talk about hatred! Flying directly towards my home, I see missiles coming for my ship. “My ship is my home, my home is my life, my life is going to end if I do not get my butt up and fight!” I wondered to myself as I heard missiles flying around like birds when migrating south. Although I complain about living there about every second of the day, there is no way I am going to let our new “enemy” sink it. No way, not as long as it still says U.S. NAVY on my uniform. Running left and right shooting at whatever didn’t have navy blue on, I found my obnoxious colonel laying down on his back, fighting to stay alive. He had been shot in the knee and foot making it impossible for him to survive and escape on his own. I knew that I had to make the biggest decision of my life; safe myself from the Japs, or risk my life to safe another soldiers life. Usually, saving a soldier’s life would be easy without questioning, but Colonel Carlos has been getting on me since Day 1. “Save yourself Son! I refuse to abandon my ship!” screamed Colonel Carlos in ordering form at me once again. Thinking to myself to follow his orders, I remembered what my father taught me when I was little. Leaving a man behind is like leaving your brother behind because you are all one, and fight for all. Without contemplating what to do, I yanked Colonel Carlos onto my shoulders and ran so fast I could have won the Olympic 500 meter sprint that day! Till this day, I will not forget how Pearl Harbor ended for Colonel Carlos and me. It taught me the meaning of brotherhood. Even though Colonel Carlos wasn’t my favorite person in the world, saving his life was the best thing that has ever happened to me. It taught me what kind of character I have, and that I am a good man. Not to sound too cocky or confident, but after saving Colonel Carlos, I have changed for the better. I see the good in people no matter how small or hard it is to see.

21. The worst feeling as a ball player, Not getting any tick no matter how much you do, Coach seems to pick favorites like he’s the mayor, Won’t get a chance as long as I wear white instead of blue, Quitting is out of the question, It’s not in my blood to give up; I’m on a mission, Practice on my game is what I’m told to do, But I won’t get a chance as long as I wear white instead of blue, 46 Seconds of pity playing time, Not enough tick to even drop one dime, “Just play your game, Matt.” That’s what people say to do, But I won’t get a chance as long as I wear white instead of blue, As long as I’m on white, I’ll be part of the key, White is where I belong, we are family, I’ll never suck up to play, that I refuse to do, Until playing time is given fairly, I’m proud to be white instead of blue!

22. Over these last couple months, I feel I have developed into a much better writer. I feel as if I use my strengths to my advantage, and as you can see, have gotten into poetry. I have gained the strength of not repeating, using stronger vocabulary, and my sentence structure has gotten better. I still need to work on length, word-choice, and being versatile and original with my writing subject. Most of the lessons I have learned from this class are useful when it comes to my AP classes. In both AP US/VA and AP English 11, I am required to develop full, well-written essays at the college level. The lessons of grammar, punctuation, structure, and word-choice I have learned in Creative Writing give me a slight advantage in developing these writings in my other classes. My favorite piece of writing so far would have to be my poem, “Message from Father to Son.” By far, I love this one the best because of its rhyme scheme, and just the overall feeling about a father sitting down with his son talking about his future. Every kid has had a talk with his father about his future, and I really was proud of how I put that realization into a poem. The most-useful strategy of mine for this semester is writing while I have the time. Creative Writing class gives me a chance to put everything out on that paper with that pen. I play multiple sports, have a big family, and have other class requirements that I must attend to, so I usually don’t have time to write. Creative Writing class gives me that opportunity to write during every class, and develop better skills as an aspiring writer. My strength in my writings is being able to write about what I love. A lot of people force themselves to write about stuff that they aren’t interested in, but think their teacher will enjoy it. I want to get a good grade, but I believe you must love your own writing before someone else can love your writing. This is why I write about sports, family, love, etc. My strength is sticking to my strengths! I need to continue to improve my word-choice, structure, and originality as a writer. I love writing about basketball, but I want to be the type of writer who can write about more than just one subject. Also, my writings tend to be short, so I need to work on my length. Last, but certainly not least, I could always work on word-choice for the rest of my life since I’m still young.