The Race

I was a senior in high school. A fairly active kid, I had tried track before. Running was not my 'thing'. They wanted me to throw shot put. I was a powerlifter, they wanted my strength. I wanted to run.

My coaches wanted my sole focus to be throwing. Beyond a one lap warm up they wanted me to save my efforts for 'the toss'. I liked throwing. But I envied the runners. I would run on my own after practice. As much as I hated the process, I loved the satisfaction that followed.

My coaches took notice but still did not want to put me in. Finally one day they gave me a shot. The meet was already won. They put me in as the final leg in the 4x400 race. One lap. It was my big shot.

With little time until the race we practiced our hand offs. I was taking the my friends place. She was the 2nd fastest 400 runner in our league. I would be running against the fastest but she had a weak group to follow. My team was strong. Our team was reigning league champs.

As I watched the first two girls run the pressure mounted this was my big chance to show my coaches I could do more than throw. The butterflies in my stomach were increasing by the second. As the third girl received the baton, I took my place on the track.

She was inching closer and closer. Her last 100 seemed to take a year. She had a strong lead. I could finish. I could win. I held out my arm- began to run. Tink, tink.... I dropped the baton. All hope was gone.

Afterwards my coach giggled, "just stick to throwing".

The Ghost

It was a sleepless July night. My friends and I wandered around the campsite, playing hackey sack and having harmless fun. We were camping at a fairground that we all showed horses at. I had shown earlier in the day and they had gone on their annual trip to a nearby gravesite. They always said it was haunted and would try to scare me with their stories.

I never believed them. I never believed in the supernatural at all. Soon that all would change.

We came out of the air conditioning. We were two hours past curfew and figured that we should try to sneak back before the park rangers caught us. We didn't make it far. But they were not concerned about us. They asked if we had seen two girls. When we said no, they asked us to help look.

Before we knew it there were about twenty people looking for these girls. Their parents were worried. We searched for about two hours- we looked in all the barns and in the normal teen hangouts. We searched the woods, even the closed down carnival. It was getting damp and late. We decided to head back.

We began to cross a foggy field. We heard a horse in the distance. It was running towards us. Thinking one of the horses had escaped we moved towards it. Soon a man on a horse appeared. One of the rangers asked him what he was doing it was nearly two in the morning. He took off. In the opposite direction. We began to chase him on foot. The two boys that were with us jumped a ditch to follow.

My girl friend and I waited in a field. As we watched our friends fade into the fog, the horse and man came from the opposite direction, and vanished just before they reached us.

The girls ended up being fine. There was a miscommunication about where they were staying. But my friends and I never stayed out that late again, and that was the last year we visited the grave site.

Stick to what you know...

I recently read portions of Stephen King's memoir "On Writing". He offers advice on writing while sharing his experiences. He touches on various elements of writing, including grammar and plot development. Perhaps his greatest point is about 'sticking to what you know'.


He explains that this is important in our vocabulary and while choosing what we right about. Trying to use big words to impress others, often does not work out well. Also, when writing on a subject the person should have a fair amount of knowledge about it. Writing on something unfamiliar to impress others, may ultimately have the opposite effect. Using a voice and vocabulary that is comfortable to us while writing about a familiar topic, allows us to draw reader's in that much more.



I believe that this is a often overlooked in writing. People sometimes write about topics that they do not know much about. This may discredit their writing. Repeated use of the thesaurus may cause the reader to disconnect. Losing one's voice while writing may distance the audience and discredit the author. King's advice to stick to what you know is a simple concept, but I feel that it is vital to many elements of an effective piece.